Saline City Councillor Girbach Talks About the Future of the Rec Center, Fire Department

Dan cites large dollar amounts yet much of the support the rec center needs is due to past neglect/lack of support from the city and continual deferral of routine maintenance. Maintenance issues identified as much as 10 or more years ago were repeatedly denied or “decision deferred” by Council and that lack of maintenance has now resulted in some of the higher cost items. Adding insult to injury, the city began diverting CARES funds away from the rec center several years ago further reducing ability to complete needed maintenance. Can’t just remove a significant source of funding, ignore the facility, then turn around and blame facility management for the fact that it has a higher than normal basis of needs now while also criticizing current margins. Additionally, rec centers are rarely if ever profit centers. Research we have done indicates that even for a facility that has not been neglected resulting in additional more costly need, on average 45% of funding is not covered by membership and programs fees. Understand Saline rec center typically has much better margins than that already.

Understand Plante Moran looking at financials from an auditing perspective. Are they really qualified to evaluate operations of a rec center? What experience makes them experts in that area? Will they perform a comparative analysis of the operations and offerings at Saline rec vs. other rec centers?

With the myriad programs the rec center offers, they are MUCH more than just a place to exercise. There are limited to no alternatives to the multiple other programs such as summer camp and kids corner that support local working parents and the multiple other special programs and events through the center. For us, improvements like the lazy river, etc. which are high cost are not necessities. Maintenance and upkeep most certainly are.

Finally, as we have said before, very, very, very difficult to understand the current significant investment in the previously more than adequate senior center (we are active members at both senior and rec centers) which involves items that are well beyond just being nice to haves – much of it is simply unnecessary - while the rec center critical base needs are continually denied. To us, it is simply another example or poor decisions and management by Council, some members of which then turn around and criticize the repeatedly neglected rec center while diverting funds to things that simply are not critical or in many cases not necessary at all.