AN EXERCISE IN GROWTH OF FACILITIES; T.O., SIMI, AGOURA YMCAS BRANCH OUT.

Byline: Kevin F. Sherry Daily News Staff Writer

Call the YMCA a family gathering place. Or a place to socialize. Or even a place to rejuvenate the body and mind.

Just don't call the YMCA a health club or fitness center.

``We aren't the same as a fitness center, and we don't like to be referred to as that,'' said John Rutherford, president of the YMCA of Southeast Ventura County, the umbrella organization for the three agencies in Thousand Oaks, Agoura Hills and Simi Valley.

The YMCA focuses on family-oriented group activities designed to build social relationships around the theme of good health, Rutherford said.

``Our mission is to put biblical principles into practice, and that's more important than building muscles,'' he said. ``The whole focus is instilling the relationship between the child and parents.''

Now more than three decades old, all three YMCAs in east Ventura County are near capacity and in the middle of construction plans. The Conejo YMCA is expanding, while the Simi Valley and Triunfo facilities are erecting headquarters so they can move out of a variety of leased buildings.

Rutherford said the new structures will better enable the YMCA to instill caring, honesty, respect and responsibility - the four core values of the national YMCA organization, and those that really seem to appeal to the family-oriented, well-educated bedroom communities of Ventura County.

``They, in the most part, really believe in the mission of the Y,'' Rutherford said.

Aside from the weight rooms and swimming pools, the YMCA offers family programs like the Y-Indian Guides, a parent-child program headed by Linda Cochran, who participates with her 8-year-old daughter, Lindsay, in Simi Valley.

``We're really building relationships between parents and children, children and children, parents and parents,'' Cochran said. ``All of the mothers, we're very close. We're best friends.''

The YMCA also offers services for older residents; in fact, half its members are over 55. Many at the Conejo Valley facility use the hydrotherapy pool for to relieve arthritis pain or to increase their range of motion.

Growing pains 

The Conejo YMCA opened at 4031 Moorpark Road in 1964 with an outdoor pool and a small multipurpose building. In 1991, the current structure was built to cover the swimming pool and add a hydrotherapy pool, lockers and a fitness room.

Now a proposed $2 million expansion could add an 11,000-square-foot gymnasium to provide space for basketball and volleyball courts, as well as more locker space and two fitness rooms.

``This new phase would help it to be a full family-oriented facility,'' Rutherford said. ``They've outgrown what they have now.''

Although the facility has just 800 members, the fitness room occasionally has people waiting to use exercise equipment, said Andy Dominguez, the senior program director.

``I wouldn't say that we are at capacity here,'' Dominguez said. ``But every year we are growing.''

The Conejo YMCA's facility is just taking shape, and by June it expects to begin seeking donations to raise the $2 million. The grand opening would be about two years away.

On the drawing board

The Triunfo YMCA in Agoura Hills has 3,500 members who participate in 10 programs at school sites and other locations throughout the community. It is in the process of building a 24,000-square-foot, $4 million headquarters on Lindero Canyon Road south of Hedgewall Drive.

The phased-in project, to be completed in two years, would feature a pool and gymnasium, Rutherford said.

``As soon as we get a development permit, then we can go fund-raising,'' he said.

The YMCA will supplement recreation activity in Agoura Hills, Rutherford said, noting, ``There's no recreation department, so we would fulfill that kind of need.''

City center

The Simi Valley YMCA has 4,000 members, the most in eastern Ventura County, and operates out of a variety of leased sites.

It is working to build a $2.5 million headquarters on Cochran Street west of Sequoia Avenue, on the site of the former police station and courthouse.

The station will be razed to make way for a park, while the 11,000-square-foot courthouse will be gutted and converted into a fitness center, locker rooms and administrative space. The YMCA also will build an 11,000-square-foot structure to house more lockers and two indoor pools.

``Having a full-service facility with a pool . . . really gives us the opportunity to serve the whole family and the whole community,'' said Jim King, the Simi YMCA's executive director.

Many of the agency's 45 programs focus on child care and youth programs like Y-Indian Guides, King said. Seniors, parents and teens are expected to benefit from the various programs that will come with a permanent building, expected to be completed by January 2000.

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3 Photos

PHOTO (1--Color) Nicole Vanole of Thousand Oaks laughs as she floats in the indoor pool during the water fitness class at the Conejo YMCA in Thousand Oaks.

(2--Color) Participants in the water fitness class at the Conejo YMCA raise and stretch their arms as they take a lap around the pool.

(3--Color) Fitness instructor Laura Spach demonstrates ``the noodle,'' which gives exercisers buoyancy during training.

Joe Binoya/Special to the Daily News