The Ile Camera
A Heritage Newspaper
Weekly Publication
Proposal fails
Area community center privileges will not expand
By Francesca Chilargi, Heritage Newspapers
PUBLISHED: February 2, 2007
FLAT ROCK — A proposal to open the community center to all municipalities, not just neighboring ones, has failed.
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The City Council voted 3 to 2 on Jan. 16 for the proposal, with Councilmen Ricky Tefend and Kenneth Wrobel dissenting. Though the majority at the meeting approved the measure, it failed because it would have required four of the five council members to approve it, officials said.
Mayor Richard Jones and Councilmen James Martin and Paul Gagne voted in favor of it.
Councilmen Eric Painter and Jonathon Dropiewski were absent.
Jones proposed the idea at the council's last meeting to generate additional revenue for the 40,000-square-foot facility.
For the 2005-06 fiscal year, the recreation center's revenue was about $940,000 and its expenditures were more than $1.1 million. To cover those expenses, $178,000 from the city's general fund was transferred to the center's fund.
Also, $240,000 was transferred from the general fund to recreation to cover expenses from July 1, 2006, to Dec. 31, 2006.
"It's not something to be ashamed of that the recreation center didn't make enough money to cover expenses," Jones said. "The center is not a financial burden on the city."
However, Wrobel disagreed and proposed analyzing the center's internal operations and possibly consolidating jobs.
"It's a business," he said. "We have to see if we can do something. It can't keep losing money."
However, Recreation Director Joan Pawlukiewicz said the center helps draw people into the city.
"We have a lot of positive comments from people coming in and out of the center including people who are not eligible for membership," she said. "As in any business, it takes three to five years to become a good business and we just finished our second year."
The mayor has attributed the shortfall to the nine-month to a year delay of a liquor license for the banquet facility. The center relies on that and renting out its three meeting rooms for a profit.
The banquet room is booked solid for weddings from May to December, a dozen in 2008 and four in 2009, Pawlukiewicz said.
Tefend said he's against open membership because of the crowds. Now that the banquet facility has its liquor license, he proposed waiting on it for revenue.
Wrobel said open membership could "chase the residents out."
"To open the center to other areas, doesn't make it a community center, then it's a health club," he said.
Jones told the council: "Don't kid yourself. You will not keep everyone outside the service area because they can get daily passes."
The recreation director suggested a year open membership trial for residents of Wyandotte, Riverview and all of Newport, because a section is eligible already and because those residents inquire about joining constantly, she said.
In 2006, Gibraltar, Grosse Ile and Trenton were allowed to join, spawning a "fair amount of funds," the recreation director said.
However, some residents who are members complained about the crowds, Wrobel said.
Pawlukiewicz said the "hotspots" are the fitness center in the evenings and the basketball court on Saturdays during the youth basketball program. That program, which is open to residents and non-residents, brought in $20,095 during the fall, up $5,215 from 2005.
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