It is a new opportunity for the City of Humboldt.
Since the City signed the Joint Use Agreement with the Horizon School Division and the Greater Saskatoon Catholic School Division, they are now looking for ways to use the fitness room, located between the Humboldt Uniplex lobby and Humboldt Collegiate Institute.
"We went through a Request for Proposal (RFP) and it closed on January 9," said Darrell Lessmeister, director of Community and Leisure Services. "It was to see if there was a private enterprise that was interested in providing public programs to the community (in the room). "
Since the City did not receive any proposals, the information went back to the committee for their January 15 meeting.
"We had our committee meeting and they reviewed it," said Lessmeister. "They gave direction to administration to go forward for the City to provide programs for the fitness centre. We have to take it to council for final approval on January 28."
There are a lot of options and the City wants to make sure they make the right choice when it comes to this room.
"We are very excited and we wanted to make sure we were moving forward in the right direction," said Lessmeister. "We want to make sure we support all opportunities and possibilities, so that is why we went out with the RFP."
Although the City is trying to determine how to use the fitness room, HCI has already started to use it.
"We are giving them access to use it during school hours, for students and staff," said Lessmeister.
The room is full of fitness equipment, including treadmills, stationary bikes, steppers and more, as well as universal and free weights.
"I think this has been a great partnership between the schools and the college to have an area we can multi-use so we can get as much use as possible for everybody," said Lessmeister.
He also hopes to get public programs booked in the room to get more use out of the room.
"The biggest advantage to having a fitness centre in a multi-use facility is accessibility," said Lessmeister. "It makes it very accessible and available for people to use if you have multi-family members where they are in hockey and the parent might be here, it would give them the opportunity to jump on a piece of equipment and get fit. Accessibility is really important."
He explained there might be opportunities for public access, similar to a gym, fitness classes, such as spin classes, or cross training with the aquatic centre.
