Drew Smith thinks so. The former WTVD sports anchor is now heading up the Chapel Hill-Carrboro YMCA's drive to build a freestanding rec center behind the Y facility on Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard. He spoke with our staff Wednesday morning.

Smith recently moved back to Chapel Hill, in large part so the youngest of his four children could attend East Chapel Hill High. The Y hasn't adopted a formal plan yet, and Smith conceded he has yet to talk to folks like Nate Davis at Hargraves or other recreation leaders. But he says feedback from a recent youth summit and his own observations indicate the center is needed.

The Y has seen the demand.

Now 6,000-members strong, the agency is "busting at the seams," Smith says. About a third of the current members have signed on in just the past five years. The staff has doubled.

The new 18,000-square-foot center, which would be open to all regardless of ability to pay, would serve up to 500 kids at a time.

It would have all the recreation equipment you'd expect, but also computer labs and places for students to do their homework after school.

It would cost $4 million.

And that, of course, is what the Y needs to work on next.

Smith says there will probably be a yearlong leadership phase before launching the main fund-raising campaign. The whole campaign, which could include asking local governments for money, could last two years.

The locker-room talk at Peak Fitness is always about how expensive the Y is. (Granted, some Peak/Capital Fitness/Spa members are still paying bargain rates from years ago.) But Smith and Evie Houtz, the YMCA's health enhancement coordinator, says their rates are competitive. Plus, the Y paid out $150,000 in scholarships last year.

And as for the group's religious underpinning, that shouldn't concern potential donors either, Smith says.

"There is a C in YMCA, but we don't hit people over the head with it," he said. "Religion [of our members], it matters not to us. Anyone of any religion can come in, and they're not going to get handed a New Testament."

From our second-floor newsroom at the corner of Graham and West Franklin streets, we've just watched a summer of kids hanging out in the street.

There may be reasons they aren't using the rec centers and parks we already have. I hope that's a story we can look at soon, as Smith and the folks at the YMCA look for ways to bring them inside.