Is Cheyenne ready for a rec center? - Wyoming Tribune Eagle Online

CHEYENNE -- Four years ago Laramie County voters rejected a proposed recreation center. But this time Todd Feezer is hoping for a better result.

The assistant director of parks and recreation for the city of Cheyenne, Feezer said, "It feels a lot better this time than it did last time."

The proposed 200,000-square-foot facility is needed to fulfill unmet recreation demands here, he said.

?This community?s ready for a recreation center,? Feezer said.

Residents will vote on the $33 million project in the Aug. 21 sixth-penny sales tax election.

The proposed center would have two levels. It would include meeting rooms, a cardio balcony, strength and conditioning machines, walking track, indoor playground, climbing wall and group exercise rooms.

There also would be a leisure pool with slides, locker rooms, a multi-use gym for basketball, volleyball and other sports and a field house the size of a soccer field that also could be used for lacrosse, baseball and football.

Included is $3 million for operations and maintenance.

Opposition

Cheyenne resident Win Wratz is against the center.

?I don?t see the need for it myself, but probably for families it?s useful,? she said.

And she said the $33 million price ?is a lot of money, and I?m not sure we can afford it.?

Paying for the facility would be a burden on the taxpayers as it would probably have to be subsidized, she said.

Kyle Cameron of Laramie County is also opposed to the facility, noting that the voters already rejected it once.

When the project was voted down by 1,713 votes in 2008, it was valued at $54 million. It has since been scaled back.

Cameron said it still is too expensive.

The voters defeated the project before because they ?felt like it was an extravagant spending spree,? Cameron added.

The community needs a rec center, but emergency services and road work must be addressed first, she added.

?We?re still in an uncertain economic future,? she said.

Costs

Feezer said he does not expect the recreation center to break even.

?I?m not going to say that it would ever become self-sufficient,? he said. ?There?s no way I?m going to make that claim.?

Memberships and other fees are expected to cover about 93 percent of the cost to run it. That would leave an annual shortfall of about $100,000, Feezer said.

But he pointed to the $3 million for operations and maintenance. Half of that would be used to cover the yearly shortfalls. So the city?s general fund would not be impacted for at least 15 years, he said.

Cheyenne?s facility would have an annual budget of about $1.6 million. The main expenses would be utilities and staff.

The center would require the city to hire two to three more full-time employees for duties such as maintenance and cleaning. And there could be 40 to 50 part-time jobs, such as child-care workers to watch children while parents exercise. Other part-time workers could be gym supervisors and fitness instructors.

If all the projects on the sixth-penny sales tax ballot pass, it could be eight to 10 years before the rec center opens.

The tax on this facility would not be collected until the money has accrued for all of the other projects.

But the rec center could be paid for with bonding and then the money from the tax could pay back the bond. But Feezer said there are expenses to bonding. That decision will have to be made after the election, he added.

Competition

The proposed center would compete against the private sector, said Patty Walters, CEO of the Cheyenne Family YMCA.

?They?re proposing to build a facility that does much the same things that we do,? she said. ?Of course it?s competition.?

Skip Ross, who owns Smart Sports fitness center in Cheyenne, also said the facility would be competition.

?It would hurt the private sector for sure,? he said, adding that he would probably have to close his fitness center.

But Feezer said a rec center in Casper coexists with private fitness clubs and a YMCA.

Waters said the Cheyenne YMCA has about 7,000 members, and the rec center could take some of those away.

?(That) is going to take away revenue from the YMCA, and it?s going to make our day-to-day existence more of a challenge,? she said.

But Feezer responded that the YMCA is not big enough to meet the community?s needs.

?Unfortunately, the ?Y? needs to do a better job of servicing their clientele,? he said.

The Cheyenne YMCA does not get government funding and barely breaks even, thanks to donors and membership fees.

Walters said she does not know how the city would run the rec center on the proposed budget.

?I guess that?s theirs to figure out, but our budget is very tight,? she said

The YMCA runs on a $2 million budget, and there are fewer donors willing to give money in the tough economy. Also, there are more people in need of scholarships to join the YMCA, she said.

The YMCA could assist in running the proposed rec center and keep some expenses off of the taxpayers, she said.

?The YMCA runs facilities very well and very inexpensively,? she said.

It?s easy to say that a rec center would bring in business, help with childhood obesity and keep children out of trouble, she said. The voters must decide whether it could really accomplish those goals, she added.

If the center only keeps one child out of trouble, Feezer said that is enough for him.

Walters said the ?Y? has no stance on whether it supports the proposed recreation center.

?We?ll deal with what happens,? she said.

Ross agreed that there is a need for more indoor basketball courts and swimming pools. He said he supports the rec center as long as it does not have gym equipment.

?Don?t put in the things we have,? Ross said. ?Why reproduce services??

The recreation center would have exercise equipment such as treadmills and elliptical machines and offer classes.

Ross said he already has enough competition from the hospital, air base, YMCA and Fitness One.

But Feezer said private clubs do not offer services to children.

Another private facility, Fitness One, had no comment on the proposed rec center.

Misconceptions

There are several misconceptions about the rec center that may have led to its defeat last time, Feezer said.

Some people oppose it because they think it will be built on the north side of town on Dell Range Boulevard, he said.

But Feezer said there has been no decision on where to put it. He added that there are possible locations throughout town, including in south Cheyenne. The city owns land in numerous places that could suit a rec center, he added.

The final decision of where to put the facility would be made through a public process, he said.

?I believe so much in this facility that I don?t care where we build it. It?s going to be successful,? Feezer said.

Ross said the recreation center should be in south Cheyenne. One idea, he said, is to build two smaller centers with one south and the other north.

But building two smaller facilities would be more expensive because it would result in more costs for utilities and staff, Feezer said.

Another misconception about the rec center is that it would cost too much for people to join, Feezer said.

The daily fees would be $6 for adults, $4 for youth and $5 for seniors.

Annual passes would be $300 for adults; $180 for youth (5-18); $240 for seniors; $360 for senior and spouse; $480 for family; $390 for single-parent family; and children 0-4 are free.

Moreover, Feezer said, the Friends of the Cheyenne Recreation Center Foundation plan to offer scholarships to help low-income people.

Feezer said he does not understand the notion of this being a bad economic time to approve a rec center. He said something on the sixth-penny is always going to pass, so the citizens will be paying it regardless.

?We?ve worked hard on this facility for a long time, and it is divisive for some reason,? Feezer said.

Subsidized

The Casper Recreation Center is subsidized by the city of Casper at about $585,000 a year.

Part of the reason that is required is because user fees are kept low to allow more access, said Carolyn Griffith, recreation division superintendent.

?We are subsidized at roughly 50 percent,? she said.

The 40,000-square-foot facility runs on a $1.1 million budget.

It is hard to say whether a rec center in Cheyenne would require the same level of subsidy, she said, adding that it would depend on fees, how it was funded and its size.

The main sources of revenue for the Casper facility are fees to join programs and sports leagues as well as daily passes and annual memberships.

Casper?s center, which was built for $3 million in 1982, does not include a pool. But users can buy combination passes for the rec center and the city?s aquatics center.

A nonprofit foundation covers 75 percent of fees for low-income residents, Griffith said.

Employees are one of the main expenses, she said, adding that it has two full-time recreation professionals, two full-time maintenance staff, about 30 seasonal employees in the summer and 25 part-time employees year round.

Some of the year-round part-time employees could work as little as one hour a week teaching a class.

The Casper center is a great benefit to a community, she said. People may look at such amenities when deciding whether to relocate, she added.

It gets some 206,000 visits a year and has a gym, fitness room, racquetball courts, weight room, craft rooms and activity areas.

Cheyenne resident Adrienne Edwards hopes a similar facility can be built here one day.

?I?m excited,? she said. ?I can?t wait for it.?

Self-sufficient

Campbell County Recreation Center director Dave McCormick said he expects his facility to make money this year.

His budget has about $1.65 million in revenue and $1.64 million in expenses.

?It could vary from year to year,? McCormick said, adding that any profit is returned to the county?s general fund.

The main sources of revenue for the Campbell County Recreation Center are user fees and memberships, he said.

The facility also generates revenue by sponsoring programs such as volleyball, basketball and soccer.

The main expenses for the facility are staff, maintenance and utilities.

There is a $7 million maintenance fund set aside to cover major repairs at there.

The 190,000 square-foot center averages about 1,200 people a day, McCormick said, adding that it cost $54.4 million.

It would be possible for a rec center in Cheyenne to break even as well, McCormick said, adding that would depend on the fee structure and number of staff members.

Recreation centers benefit communities by adding quality of life and drawing businesses, McCormick said.

He said he realizes rec centers do not offer essential services like fire or police, but they keep children out of trouble.

Campbell County?s opened in 2010 and has three basketball courts, four racquetball courts, a weight room, cardio area, two exercise rooms, climbing wall, indoor track, five indoor tennis courts, four locker rooms, a leisure pool and a six-lane lap pool.

?We think it?s pretty cool,? McCormick said.

Source: http://www.wyomingnews.com/articles/2012/08/05/news/01top_08-05-12.txt

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