The parking lot is nearly full. The weight room is packed. All
signs point to a successful first year for the Centennial
Recreation Center in Morgan Hill.
Morgan Hill – The parking lot is nearly full. The weight room is packed. All signs point to a successful first year for the Centennial Recreation Center in Morgan Hill.
The city and the YMCA will throw a one-year celebration for the recreation center on Saturday, October 20. There will be a five-kilometer walk at 8:30am, and a one-mile family run at 9:30am. It will cost $5 for youths, $10 for adults and $20 for the whole family. All prices will increase by $5 should you register on the day of the event.
“We are hoping for 1,500 (people),” said Marketing Coordinator Maureen Drewniany. “Last year was the grand opening, so there was a lot of hype. It might end up with the same number. It was a bigger deal last year. We are hopeful, though.”
Recreation Supervisor Chris Ghione said management set out to land 2,185 memberships in its first year. It has more than 2,400 memberships currently, which amounts to more than 8,000 individuals using the facility. Family memberships account for the disparity between the number of memberships and the number of members. Taxes paid to construct the building, while its operations are financed by monthly membership fees ranging from $25 for a teenager to $75 for a family.
“We haven’t had too many complaints. I wouldn’t say there haven’t been any. Some may go to the city council or city hall. We do have some people who think the rates are too low, or too high,” Ghione said.
Though many of the programs are available only to members, some are free to the public. The teen center is one, though some in the community have said it was not popular among Morgan Hill adolescents. Ghione thinks that it’s being used more than it had been at the beginning.
“A short time ago that was the case. Now we’re up to 30 kids a day. It’s packed in there,” he said.
Near the teen center, there are a few rooms aimed at seniors within the community. It’s a mixture of young and old, reflective of a building that’s supposed to bring together the community. While teenagers play X-Box or foosball, the seniors focus on their nutrition in the dining room. Virginia Morabito, an 83-year-old from San Martin, has lived in the area for 66 years. She started coming to the center because her husband had a stroke.
“I preferred the old Friendly Inn. The parking is bad, and you have to walk quite a ways to get in here,” Morabito said as she took a break from watching “Who wants to be a Millionaire?” on one of the high definition televisions to voice her displeasure.
Though she despaired over the walk, exercisers seemed content on the treadmills and stationary bikes. It may have had to do with the $80,000 system they use to track their workouts. It keeps tabs on what they’ve done, how much weight they’ve lifted and has messages left by fellow members. Now that the center has a consistent crowd, management will focus on keeping the members it has instead of bringing in newer ones.
“In the fitness business, once you get to that level, it’s about retaining members, not attracting new people,” Ghione said.
