The old school building along Butler Avenue that has served the Tybee Island community for nearly a century is everything, all at once. It houses the YMCA, rentable community rooms, a cafeteria the island uses as a food pantry, a recycling center and a hygiene locker. There are rooms for yoga, dance and spin classes. There’s a gym that TIMA students use, and during the day they use the playground and the pavilions for play or instruction outside.
It is already the kind of multi-use, multi-generational space that some parents of kids who attend the Tybee Island Maritime Academy (TIMA) and others have envisioned for Memorial Park and are pushing for as the city considers the park’s future. But it’s not a concept that everyone has bought into.
TIMA potentially having a facility in Memorial Park is a complex issue, one that City Manager Bret Bell says is “all about the details.” Firstly, there’s the question of feasibility, if can TIMA pay for a facility. But to answer that question, another question needs to be answered: Is the building going to serve a single purpose or multiple purposes, especially if TIMA occupies the facility full time?…