By Violet Spader Staff Writer — By Christmas, Youth and Family Services of North Central Oklahoma hopes to be housed in its new facility, a project that has been four years in the making.

Currently, brickwork is being completed on Thelma Gungoll Youth and Family Center, a 12,100-square-foot youth shelter and counseling center.

Justin Simmons, executive director, said the new facility will feature 16 counseling offices, administrative offices and a conference room, as well as bedrooms and bathrooms to house up to 18 children — nine females and nine males. A great room will house recreation, dining and living areas, and a backyard with a privacy fence will be available for children staying at the shelter. The new structure also has a “safe room,” where children and staff can go during threatening weather.

The shelter’s current capacity is 12 — six females and six males. Simmons said seven children on average are in the shelter each day, and they stay an average of 14 days. The current facility is aging, deteriorating, barely adequate and doesn’t meet local fire codes, he said.

Simmons said the current facility used to be barracks, then served for a time as a nursing home. After YFS has moved into the new building, the present facility will be demolished to make room for a parking lot.

A fundraising campaign kicked off in November 2005, and YFS broke ground for the facility in October 2006.

“I’m very excited to see it come to pass,” Simmons said. “It’s taken about four years to go from conception to materialization.”

Originally, costs were projected at $1.5 million, according to Simmons, and he said it looks like they’ll get that amount. But after bids were accepted, Simmons said they realized the actual cost would be around $2 million.

He said they don’t plan to have a public campaign at this time, and they don’t plan to stop the building project three-quarters of the way through.

“We’re about half a million short,” Simmons said. “We have the ability to finance it, but it will be a strain on our operating budget.”

However, the organization has had aid come from unexpected places. Simmons said he wants to thank OG&E; Electric Services, which has installed buried power lines in front of the new building and will remove overhead lines once construction is completed. He said the cost of moving power lines is around $10,000, a sum YFS won’t have to pay since OG&E; isn’t charging.

“And I want to say a big, fat thank you to the citizens of Enid,” Simmons said, adding residents who likely won’t use YFS services have given nearly $1 million to help fund the building project.

“It shows our community values kids,” he said.

Youth and Family Services of North Central Oklahoma, founded in 1974 by Gungoll, is an Enid-based nonprofit agency that provides therapeutic foster care placement, counseling and other family centered services to children and families. The agency primarily serves Garfield, Grant and Major counties.

YFS is one of three Enid nonprofit organizations that are finalists for the first Oklahoma Nonprofit Excellence (ONE) Awards, which will be awarded Saturday in Tulsa.

The other representatives from Enid are Enid Community Clinic and Denny Price Family YMCA.

Winners in each of the nine categories will receive $7,500, and the other nominees will receive $5,000. An overall winner will receive an additional $10,000.

For information about YFS, call 233-7220.