Fitness center asks city for monetary support

Southern Prairie Family Fitness Center is asking the city of Creston for a total of $300,000 over a five-year period to keep their facility running. Skip Kenyon spoke on behalf of SPFFC to the Creston City Tuesday about what that support would mean and if it would be feasible, though no decisions were made.

The fitness center has been having a hard time financially since closing for the COVID pandemic in 2021. Kenyon reported a drop of around 800 membership units. Units could be a single person, a couple or a family group.

The fitness center was able to replace some of that money with COVID relief through the city and the Paycheck Protection Program. However, four years later, that money has run out.

“We’re running short every month by about $15,000, and that’s a chunk of money,” Kenyon said. “What we’re looking for is for some joint effort here. What our goal is is to ask the city if they’d be willing to match the funds. If you’ll consider committing to $60,000 a year, we’ll raise $120,000 a year. We’d like to get that commitment for five years.”

Kenyon said the fitness center has regained more than half of their members, but are still too short to make ends meet. He believes with help from the city for the next five years, the membership numbers and finances will be back on track.

“Our membership is climbing back up, that 400 that was absolutely miserable,” Kenyon said. “As of yesterday we’re at 921, which we’ve picked up over 500 members over the past five years. We need to keep going.”

Multiple people spoke in favor of SPFFC during the public forum, encouraging the council to do whatever was needed to keep the center in town. Patty Bollinger, who was previously a board member, said she thought the center is a much needed community hub.

“It was very much needed for Creston. It’s for the whole family,” Bollinger said. “I’m here tonight to say I think that Southern Prairie Family Fitness Center, being a non-profit exercise place, is something that Creston really needs and I hope the community will support them 100%.”

Another SPFFC member spoke to the positives it brings to those needing physical rehabilitation. Angie Wimber explained how the pool helps her exercise after a spinal cord injury.

“After my therapy at the hospital, they discharged me and I didn’t really know what I was going to do to keep working out,” Wimber said. “I decided to start utilizing the swimming pool, which I’ve been doing for about 2.5 years now, two or three times per week, and I firmly believe that if I didn’t have that swimming pool, I probably right now would be either wheelchair-ridden or bed-ridden at home.”

Wimber noted SPFFC’s pool is the only option within an hour of Creston for indoor swimming.

SPFFC employee Sharon Gardner said she’s seen numerous people like Wimber get back their strength in similar ways.

“You wouldn’t believe how many people come in early in the morning and do their workout. I see lots of rehabilitation happening at that facility,” Gardner said. “Our silver sneakers program is very active. Sometimes we have 24 members in the class. Then, after that, we have our limited mobility class, which is our Parkinson’s group, and I have seen some drastic improvement in some of them also.”

Other SPFFC board and center members shared various other comments throughout the night in support of the facility.

Many council members spoke in favor of the matching funds. However, the city’s accountant has not looked at how including $60,000 a year would affect Creston’s budget, so the council was not comfortable making a decision yet.

Kenyon assured the council the city would only have to give the money each year if the fitness center had raised an additional $120,000. If that money was raised, the city would be off the hook.

Council member Kiki Scarberry requested SPFFC bring forward a more complete plan for the future of the fitness center before the council made any decisions.

“We’re talking about a five-year plan. We’re talking about years of commitment. We have to have measurables, like what happens if after year one we’re not hitting those marks? What are we going to do different,” Scarberry asked. “If we always do what we’ve always done, we’ll always be back here. I don’t want anybody to think I’m against it, but I think we need a better plan.”

Kenyon said the money provided by the council would simply be put towards monthly costs for SPFFC, nothing extra. An average, it takes about $700,000 to run the facility each year. Kenyon also added that if SPFFC had to close, the building would be the city’s responsibility.

“If we’re not successful here and we end up having to close all the way, then the city has to pick up the whole building, not just $60,000,” Kenyon said. “You’re going to get the whole building. We’re taking care of all the rest of it, we just need some help to get through the next few years.”

However, the council reiterated the city’s accountant had to be spoken with before any decisions were made. The topic will likely be brought up again at the March 4 council meeting.

In other council news...

After returning the 2024 Union County Hazard Mitigation Plan to Union County Emergency Management for corrections in January, the council approved the plan, while noting there were still numerous clerical errors.

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