Council Votes to Expand Rec Center Memberships
Feb 10th, 2010 | By Greg Hazley | Category: On tapThe Secaucus mayor and council voted Tuesday night to expand the town’s membership pool for the year-old recreation center by inviting non-residents who work in Secaucus to join the facility for use during business hours Monday through Friday.
Councilmen John Shinnick and John Bueckner at Tuesday night's meeting of the mayor and council.
The measure, approved unanimously, 7-0, at the governing body’s Feb. 9 public meeting, also includes a new structure for month-to-month memberships at an elevated rate and is a bid to raise additional revenue for the $12M-dollar facility, which will cost about $1M to operate this year, including bond payments and operating costs.
Town administrator David Drumeler stressed that annual plans for residents will be unchanged for the new year.
A new tier for month-to-month memberships would allow residents to skip the commitment of locking into a year-long plan, but rates under the new plan would be higher — $45/month for an indivdual compared with about $30 under an annual plan.
“There will not be any commitment to stay longer than a month,” Drumeler said of the new monthly plan, adding that a user that does not pay for two consecutive months would have to reapply with a $25 fee to re-join the facility on a monthly basis.
Widening the scope of potential members also comes as the rec center’s first year of memberships are up for renewal and town officials eagerly await the response from residents to gauge the facility’s fiscal future.
Under the new plan, non-residents who work in town can join the facility $375 per year (with a $25 registration fee) and work out Monday through Friday from 5 a.m. to 5 p.m. at the Koelle Boulevard center.
“We really don’t anticipate that many [non-resident] people, but whatever we get is a plus in our eyes just as long as it doesn’t interfere with the [existing users],” said 2nd Ward Councilman John Bueckner.
Resident plans remain the same at $299 per year.
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You gotta wonder what anybody was thinking when they built a 12 million dollar gym.
This is a complete joke. First off, how many people who work here, that live in other towns, have time between 5am and 5pm to workout? Most people work out 5pm-7pm. They’re lucky if they get more than 5 extra people this way.
Second, from people I’ve talked to, looks like they’re going to have a BIG problem with people not renewing their memberships.
Something better must be done, this rec center or “wreck center” as another witty poster called it, is going to cause our taxes to be raised A LOT. Sure we have Elwell and his cronies to blame, however, Mayor Mike and his buddies aint doing much to solve anything!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
The center is already built. I’m not sure what you want Gonnelli to do. I agree that 5am to 5pm will not get that many people. I think the only thing to do, is to open up the center to some of the surrounding towns. It’s the only way to bring in additional money.
I think they should look at selling it or leasing it.
Running league’s in it. Make money off the courts. Do a basketball league, a volleyball league, an indoor soccer league, sell things during these leagues and events like refreshments, etc. Even tournaments. Whatever brings in people. Let non-members join these leagues. Charge per season. Whatever will offset this huge white elephant on our books!
When you have a steady flow of people coming in for these leagues, you can generate funds from advertising. You can also SELL refreshments and snacks. Make those bums earn their salaries.
Only the mentally disabled work there and run the place though, so they’d never think of it.
I think that opening up membership to non-resident although can not hurt, won’t bring in a significant increase in membership. A better solution for the center needs to be developed for the long term. In terms of hours the center is open perhaps splitting up the time that it is open may be an option to help increase the membership even more. You could still open the center 5AM to 10 AM, then close it and open again at 2 PM to 9 PM, which is still 12 hours of time being open to keep the payroll the same. The prime hours for a gym are between 6 PM and 9 PM and this would accommodate more people.
Sorry did not realize that the center is open until 9 PM. But limiting the time to 5 PM for non-residents won’t add up to much especially if considering limiting the prime hours between 6 PM and 9 PM and weekends. Again a better solution needs to be thought out for the long run. I’m not saying that this is going to be done overnight, but just realize that this center needs a better solution.