LITTLE ROCK — The staff at Little Rock’s Dalton James Dailey Family Fitness and Aquatic Center hopes to make workouts a little more high tech with plans for new equipment.
The Little Rock Board of Directors will discuss two resolutions at its agenda meeting tonight aimed at increasing community center services for residents. A vote is scheduled for the following regular board meeting on Feb. 5.
The first resolution calls for replacing more than 50 pieces of aging fitness equipment at some of the city’s facilities, and the second resolution asks the Board of Directors to approve a contract for an architect to design the West Central Community Center.
“I think the parks and recreation staff does a good job of keeping a list of needed improvements, and when we’re able to identify funding, we move them forward,” said City Manager Bruce Moore. “It’s a quality of life issue that people have a viable place to exercise and be healthy.”
“I think in terms of the West Central Community Center it will provide something the community has wanted, and I think when it’s done, it’ll be something the community and the city will both be proud of.”
The first resolution calls for a contract to be awarded to Your Total Fitness Shop for more than $231,000 to replace 41 pieces of old workout equipment at the fitness and aquatic center adjacent to War Memorial Stadium and replace another 15 pieces of old equipment to be split between the Dunbar Community Center on West 16th Street and the Southwest Community Center on Base Line Road.
“Some of our treadmills are about 15 years old,” said Darryl Marbley, the director of the Dunbar Community Center. “We have a lot of classes, aerobics and Zumba, and a lot of seniors who come use our equipment. It may get more people to exercise, but really the big thing is that it will meet the demand we have for new equipment.”
Your Total Fitness Shop was the lowest responsive bidder among five companies that submitted proposals for the equipment purchase. Moore said it is a locally owned company.
According to the resolution, the city will spend $231,689 from the Fitness Center Reserve Fund and from the General Fund to replace the equipment.
The fitness center, built in 1992, has seen a steady increase in use over the years. Staff said one of the primary concerns from citizen evaluations of the center was that equipment be upgraded to properly reflect trends in health and fitness equipment.
Industry standards suggest that equipment be replaced ideally every three to five years, but the average age of equipment at the center is seven years. The age means staff spends a lot of time repairing and making maintenance calls for the machines.
At the two community centers, while the equipment is under less-constant use, many of the machines still need constant maintenance and repair, staff said. The 15 machines headed to those centers will replace the equipment that is no longer feasible to repair.
The board will also take the next step to complete the long wanted West Central Community Center planned for construction adjacent to the baseball fields off of Colonel Glenn Road and John Barrow Road.
A resolution approves a contract for architectural design services for the new center to the Woods Group Architect. The contract calls for the services to cost no more than 6.5 percent of the construction budget.
The overall budget for the project is about $6 million, which will come from the capital improvements portion of the voter-approved, one percent citywide sales tax increase that started last year.
Ward 6 Director Doris Wright said residents have been eagerly awaiting the center, which will be a state-of the-art facility with basketball courts, running and walking tracks, and a pool.
“This is something I have been working on for a very long time and something the community has needed for a very long time,” she said. “It’s going to be like nothing else that exists in our parks systema and nothing else that I think exists in central Arkansas.
“There’s so much land there for the baseball fields, and with these additional features - the pool, the splash pad, the walking track, the basketball courts, space for senior programming ... it’s going to be unique.”
Wright said community representatives and city officials will meet to discuss proposals for the project’s construction manager next week. Once the construction manager is chosen, the architect will work with them and the community to complete a design.
“We haven’t built a brand new center in a while,” Moore said. “The pool, though expensive, is an important component of that. It’s one of the benefits of having the [architect and construction manager] working together because they both know we have $6 million that covers the scope of the project and from there we will see what we can develop.”
Moore said the design phase will likely last through the end of the year and the city will likely break ground in early 2014.
Wright said the city will likely end up creating another entrance to the facility off of John Barrow Road that makes it more visible to the community and to visiting teams, which she hopes will some day include basketball and other sports tournaments. The entrance to the baseball and softball fields is currently across the street from O’Reilly Auto Parts on Colonel Glenn Road.
The land for the center and fields, formerly Rosedale Park, was sold to the city for $1 by the Little Rock Optimist Club with the stipulation that it be used for community purposes.
The city operates six other community centers: Dunbar, Southwest, the East Little Rock Community Center on East Sixth Street, the Stephens Community Center on West 18th Street, the Adult Leisure Center on West 12th Street and the Therapeutic Recreation Division on Dahlia Drive.
Arkansas, Pages 7 on 01/29/2013