Mount Prospect board rejects village hall fitness center
Mount Prospect will not spend up to $170,594 to complete construction of a gym for employees in the basement of village hall, village trustees decided Wednesday.
Trustees chose not to take a vote on the proposal after several board members and residents spoke out against it, saying the planned fitness center was an unnecessary luxury for the approximately 40 village workers who said in a survey that they would use it.
"There is absolutely no reason you should spend $4,500 per employee for an exclusive health club that nobody else in the village can use other than village employees," resident Kenneth Orms said.
Resident Carol Neufeldt said village employees have the option of using existing exercise workout facilities at the police, fire and public works departments, as well as park district facilities at a discount.
"Adding this fitness center would be a costly, unnecessary duplication of efforts," she said.
A fitness center inside village hall first was proposed when the building at 50 S. Emerson St. was designed and built in 2003. However, budget constraints led village officials to abandon the plan and leave the space empty.
The village staff recently suggested finishing the fitness center using money available in the village's risk management fund. That money initially came from a $52,000 health insurance class-action lawsuit settlement and has since been augmented by rebate payments from the village's wellness program.
Village Manager Michael Cassady said a workout facility in village hall would benefit employees there, many of whom are sedentary by the nature of their work.
"Engaging in fitness and wellness, we feel, is definitely a good thing, to create a workforce that is energized and is focused on the customer," he said.
However, trustees said that with the Mount Prospect Park District offering village employees a 50 percent membership discount for its facilities, that's a less expensive option.
"We could literally fund the memberships of the staff, their children, their children's children and their children's children with the amount of money that we would be spending on these facilities," Trustee Paul Hoefert said.