Members of both councils unite in seeking to save center

Reporter

rseaborn@pickenssentinel.com

CENTRAL - Clemson City Administrator Rick Cotton didn't mince words when he told a joint meeting of Central and Clemson municipal officials that their combined effort to provide residents an affordable health and fitness center was floundering financially.

"I'd like to tell you that we have rosier news tonight, but we don't," Cotton said. "We are facing the same problems as our transit system."

The center lost $150,000 last year despite various efforts by officials to stop the steady hemorrhaging of money, he said.

"We looked at creating cardio-aerobic classes, but that didn't work," he said. "We lost about $40,000 in part-time fitness instructors, and that sum has been cut in half now."

In addition, a glitch in a recently installed computer software program was unable to distinguish between active and inactive membership, and a hand check of membership could not determine which members were in reality active but had paid with a check instead of a credit card or bank drift, Cotton said.

Many members of the center who paid their annual membership dues by bank check will be receiving letters in upcoming days requesting that they bring a copy of that cancelled check to the recreation center to prove their active membership, Cotton said.

The center has endured seven months of under-billing due to the inability to track the membership of anyone issuing a check for dues, he said.

Adding to the financial woes of the recreation center are competitive fitness gyms opening in the area within the past 18 months, Cotton said.

"We have competition that caters mostly to single memberships," he said. "And based on the competition, we would think that we would see a decrease in single memberships and an increase in family memberships.

"But that's not the case," he said. "We have seen single memberships increase and family memberships decline."

According to Cotton, the center has lost 300 family memberships over the past two years through non-renewal.

"I don't know why we are seeing this decline in family memberships, but we need to find out," he said. "Maybe they are having to put that money in their gas tanks, but family memberships are an issue."

The hiring of an assistant director who could focus mainly on courting family memberships would greatly benefit the program, Cotton said.

"The key is marketing family memberships," he said. "If we can't do that in the next 12 months, we need to re-evaluate."

Central Parks and Recreation Director Tom Cloer said he had contacted area schools, hoping to be able to send information about the indoor recreation center, located on Commons Way, to parents through students.

Since local schools and communities are continuously searching for alternative after-school programs for child, Cloer said he thought a partnership with area schools and the center would be an answer to many problems.

However, while school officials told him that while they would welcome such an opportunity to provide information concerning the recreation center to parents, the upper management of the school district would not allow such advertising, Cloer said.

"I talked to the schools, and they said their hands were tied," he said. "The new superintendent won't allow advertising."

In a telephone conversation with superintendent Lee D'Andrea, Cloer said he was told that by allowing information concerning the center to be passed along to students and then parents would open up schools to having to allow such groups as the Klu Klux Klan to also distribute material, he said.

Cotton said Clemson Council members had suggested that each municipality channel $50,000 into the center from general funds as to keep dues low enough that people of all financial backgrounds could afford the membership dues.

"Fifty thousand dollars is a good philosophy, but in Central, that doesn't exist," Central Mayor Mac Martin said. "Nor do we have a way to raise that amount."

Martin said while he appreciates the affordability of the recreation center, and would hate to see it become a more exclusive facility, such as the Greenville Racket Club, increasing the membership rates may be the only answer to the center's survival.

"We can't provide everything to everybody," he said.

Both groups did agree that an assistant director should be hired who would seek new and renewed family memberships, and also take some of the load from the shoulders of Director Joe Cosby.

They also decided to enter into a lease-purchase agreement for the acquiring of 28 new pieces of equipment, to replace 25 items that are no longer functional.

A committee of two council members from each municipality was also selected to work with Cloer and Cosby in developing plans to turn the recreation center into a self-supported entity.