By Chris Bavender
The Monon Community Center will soon look a little different as installation of upgraded equipment and renovations to flooring in the fitness area are set to start. Work will began this week and is expected to last three to four weeks.
“The flooring in the fitness area of the Monon Community Center is original to the facility and has outlived its useful life,” said Kurtis Baumgartner, Monon Community Center director. “New flooring will be updated using a rubber tile product, identical to the style utilized in the Oasis (Monon Walkway) and East Building studios and will provide a slip resistant, stain resistant, easily cleaned surface more conducive for member use.”
The Center, which opened Memorial Day weekend 2007 and has almost 15,000 members, will spend $108,900 to upgrade the flooring and $52,205 on new exercise equipment, replacing some machines that are original to the facility.
“Fitness equipment continuously evolves, so new equipment typically comes with additional bells and whistles that older equipment did not have,” Baumgartner said. “Staff has worked hard to find ways to make the fitness space more functional and have identified ways to diversify equipment by purchasing items that take up a smaller blueprint but are much more conducive to what our members are looking for.”
Work will be done in three phases to minimize the effect on club members. The first phase will focus on the cardio and Cybex strength circuit area flooring, which will involve moving equipment to other spaces within the center. The work won’t impact the free-weight area, however.
“As the first phase progresses and nears completion, free-weight equipment will be moved onto the new flooring so that crews can begin to demo and replace flooring in that space as well for Phase 2,” Baumgartner said. “The third and final phase will include moving all equipment back into its respective spaces and replacing the carpet walkway that extends from the fitness entry to the locker rooms.”
Baumgartner said the improvements that will please members the most will be the upgrades to the free-weight area, one of the last remaining spaces with original equipment.
“Staff worked hard to identify ways to make the space more efficient and adding functional trainers, and another power rack allows us to accomplish that,” he said.
