Mayor proposes wellness center (with link to presentation)
Hartselle Mayor Dwight Tankersley has proposed several options for repairing the city’s 35-year-old pool including one that would build a $13 million lifestyle center with indoor and outdoor pools.
Tankersley said the reason why he was exploring this option was to find a way to make the city pool profitable.
CLICK HERE TO SEE MAYOR TANKERSLEY’S PRESENTATION
Currently, the city pool generates between $125,000 to $135,000 in revenue annually, but it has never had a positive cash flow.
“I feel like our best option to have a positive cash flow is to go with a lifestyle center,” Tankersley said. “That’s the only option that has the chance to pay for itself.”
The proposal includes two outdoor pools, one indoor pool, a hot tub, sauna, locker rooms, exercise rooms and meeting rooms.
Tankersley proposed putting a facility either next to the Sparkman Civic Center along U.S. 31, which would include acquiring land the city currently doesn’t own, or use land between the baseball and soccer fields that is currently undeveloped.
The estimated cost for the U.S. 31 site is $13.4 million while the other site will cost about $600,000 less.
Projected annual costs are about $1 million. Based on Cullman’s model, Tankersley believes that Hartselle could pay for the facility including the bond payment if at least 2,850 members each year, which would translate into $1.8 million in revenue..
Tom Bender, owner of Bender’s Gym in Hartselle, said that although this facility would be in competition with his gym, he would like to work with the city to create a facility that would better meet the needs of the community at a lower price.
“After being in the health and wellness business, I know a lot of gyms are getting away from pools,” Bender said. “If you’re basing this on Cullman’s facility, there is a lot of wasted space in that building and it was much more expensive than it should have been. I think the city could build a far superior facility for less money than what Cullman did.”
Bender also warned that Hartselle residents have more options for gyms than Cullman residents.
Councilman Tom Chappell said if the city pursued the lifestyle center, he wanted to see the wellness part of the facility leased to Benders or another gym to help pay for itself.
“I’m in favor of pursuing this,” Chappell said. “I’d be interested in leasing out the wellness center by bidding it out. It will help us cut down on the cost of running the facility.”
Tankersley also added that the facility could gain additional income by pool and meeting room rentals for parties and other functions.
Councilman Don Hall said he wanted to get more public input before moving forward with the issue.
“I feel like it’s good to let it sit and get more public input,” Hall said.
