New London - A committee of the City Council agreed Monday to designate Veterans Field as a potential site for a proposed community center and endorsed the idea of negotiating a partnership with the Ocean Community YMCA to develop and run an indoor recreation center.

The Education, Parks & Recreation Committee passed a resolution that will go before the full City Council for a vote. The resolution would open negotiations with the Y, which has operated in Westerly for 80 years. The YMCA also opened a satellite facility in Richmond, R.I., 13 years ago and merged with the Mystic Community Center 10 years ago.

"We're in the area, and we're looking for partners,'' said Maureen Fitzgerald, president and chief operating officer for Ocean Community YMCA. "We would like the council to consider working with the YMCA."

Fitzgerald, a member of the New London Community Center Collaborative, was one of a dozen people who advocated Monday for a community center for the city.

"Our mission is to provide programs and facilities,'' she said. "No one is denied for inability to pay."

The YMCA uses a sliding scale for membership fees, based on the formula for free lunch used by the schools, she said. Scholarships can pay up to 100 percent of the fees. At the YMCA in Westerly, memberships range from $47 to $74 a month, she said.

"I think a community center would be great for our city," said Jenny Alvarez, a city resident and parent.

Mayor Daryl Justin Finizio said he is in favor of a community center for city residents and added that the YMCA could be a good partner. He also said he has no objection to the Veterans Field site.

"If we build it so it is truly open to all New London residents ... this is an initiative the administration will support," he said. "I would personally welcome it and love to see it."

Veterans Field, located on Cedar Grove Avenue near Colman Street, at one time the home football field for New London High School, was also used for baseball and more recently was the site of portable classrooms for elementary school children. The land is now vacant.

Michael Ainsworth, an engineer from HRP Associates in Farmington, said the property underwent an environmental cleanup about 10 years ago before the city put up the temporary classrooms. A building could go there without any further work on the land, he said.

The collaborative has been meeting and discussing the possibility of a community center for the city for three years. The more than 20 members represent businesses, social services, nonprofits, senior citizens and educators.

The group has proposed the city sell or agree to a long-term lease on Veterans Field to the Ocean Community YMCA.

To date, the group has raised about $35,000 in private funding and hired Bargmann Hendrie + Archetype Inc. and Ballard King Associates, who polled residents and drew up conceptual designs based on results of the poll. As envisioned, the center could have community rooms, a swimming pool, gymnasium, walking track, fitness room with weight machines and meeting spaces for teens and seniors.

k.edgecomb@theday.com