MORAN — City Council members may have gotten more than they bargained for with their involvement with the opening of the 54 Fitness center.
Members discussed a list of woes Monday night, the first of which was the cleanliness of the facility. Council members were not pleased the center was not cleaned prior to its first day of operation, a task that was supposed to be overseen by Moran Pride Thrive.
“They were supposed to provide cleaning.That has not worked out very well,” said Mayor Phillip Merkel.
City Clerk Lori Evans, who assumed the task, said it was her understanding that Moran Pride Thrive would be scheduling a group to take care of the center’s needs this week. She asked council members if they would be in favor of supplying those who maintain the upkeep of the center with free memberships.
The request was met with a less-than-enthusiastic response from members who ultimately decided to discuss it at a later date since no one from Moran group was present. Questions raised included how many would partake in the cleaning responsibilities and how many free memberships would be involved. Damaris Kunkler, program director for Thrive Allen County, told The Iola Register this morning that missionaries from Utah will clean the facility this week and that beginning next week eight volunteers have been secured to carry out the task.
Council member Jim Mueller remarked the fitness center has not seen much utilization since it opened June 1. Evans said 20 memberships had been paid for to date, although she had a “stack” of applications that were filled out and have yet to be paid for.
“Hopefully it will pick up,” Merkel said.
Mueller also expressed concern over what the fitness center will cost the City Council in monthly utilities since membership is so low. In addition, the hot water heater does not work and council members were not eager to remedy that situation, but remarked instead that hand sanitizer had been made available.
“We are not going to put The center is currently without phone service in the case of an emergency. Council members discussed keeping a cell phone on the premises, without service, that was able to connect to 911 only.
To add to the multitude of issues connected to the facility, council members received a letter dated May 22 from Darrin Petrowsky of the Kansas Department of Transportation. The letter pointed to two of four access points giving entrance to the exercise facility’s parking lot.
“Please note if no attempt is made by you or any other interested party, the KDOT reserves the right to take necessary actions to bring the route into conformance with our Access Manage Policy on these two corridors by making necessary adjustments to existing entrances because of the change of use being experienced at this property,” Petrowsky said.
Council members were disgruntled with Petrowsky’s concern, but agreed to set up a time to meet.
“Why spend money taking driveways out,” Merkel said.
The Health Care Foundation of Greater Kansas City, the source of grant money to fund 54 Fitness, will be conducting an inspection of the facility June 26.
Enthusiasm amongst council members sparked as the discussion turned to the previously agreed date of Jan. 1, 2018, to transfer the full responsibility of the fitness center over to Moran Pride Thrive.
In other business:
Yvonne Scott, an AmeriCorps Vista volunteer working for a year as Thrive’s Healthy Food Initiative coordinator, introduced herself to council members and briefly discussed her role in developing a plan to turn Stub’s Market into a grocery co-op. Scott mentioned that she did not attend the city council meeting to ask council members for money. She left after a brief introduction, but discussion about the grocery store resurfaced later in the meeting.
Council members said they were strapped with operating on a tight budget and hinted that they may not be receptive to the grocery store project costing them money. They questioned how much the city would be asked for in the future.
The topic of whether Allen County Commissioners would fund the venture as they did the G&W project in Iola came up briefly.
City council contemplates fitness woes
