Monday night, USD 428 School Board approved a request by the Great Bend Recreation Center to ask for a mill levy increase from 5.000 to 7.000. However, the request is being contested by a local private busniess owner, Caron Zager of Club 1 Fitness.  The issues presented are complicated, with both entities providing the community a valuable service.   

Long-time local company works to stay viable
“Every time I’m paying my taxes I’m funding my competition,” Zager said, in making her case. “They should either cut expenses or increase their charges to customers. If you raise taxes, that compounds those same issues for my business.”
Over the years, she’s seen increasing pressure from not only the Great Bend Recreation Center, but those in Hoisington and Claflin too. With each opening, she says she sees memberships go away.
“First they provided classes, then they got equipment,” she said. While the economy has hurt everyone, she acknowledges, she’s worked to hold onto the business her father started nearly 40 years ago.
“I’m not a YMCA or a Genesis,” she said. “I’m a mom-and-pop business, and I’ve made renovations and have not raised rates because of the economy.”
While some may find the distance too great between Hoisington or Claflin and Great Bend, Zager said her membership base hails from many surrounding communities including Larned, thanks to the state contracting with her for employee memberships.
But she does value some of what the recreation commission provides for the community. All of her kids took part in classes and teams offered through the GBRC, and Zager says she supports these programs. But the inclusion of exercise equipment and adult fitness classes are what has her concerned. She’s also concerned the commission may at some point decide to build or add onto an existing facility to provide more of these, and that would likely be the last straw for her.
Zager reports having nearly 3,000 paying members, many of which are family members of corporate membership holders. That’s one of the strategies she’s found successful in bringing members in – offering discounts businesses can pass on to their employees through payroll deductions. In contrast, she feels the recreation commission is propping up services for a few.
“It’s a lot of money they’re asking for,” she said. “It’s not really fair for everyone to have to pay to support a few people who use those facilities.”

Great Bend Recreation Center provides for entire community
Diann Henderson, director of the Great Bend Recreation Commission, informed the USD 428 Board of Education Monday that the main reason for their request is to be proactive in the face of possible health insurance mandates coming down from the federal government.
According to Henderson, the Recreation Commission employs 162 employees of which 96 percent are part time or seasonal employees. A majority of these employees are local high school or college students and young adults electing to stay in Great Bend to work.
As a governmental entity, the commission may be forced to provide a health insurance opportunity for seasonal and temporary staff. Right now, they aren’t certain what the future holds.
“We’re trying to be fiscally responsible,” Henderson said. “We see that this may be required, and we’re making provisions to maintain the public recreation system and current services.”
She also reminded the board that staff and offerings have been cut, and the GBRC has not provided raises since 2009, when the federal government mandated an increase in the minimum wage.
“We’d like to be able to invest in our employees by being able to offer a wage that is at least competitive within the Great Bend area,” she said. “Currently, we aren’t even competitive with the fast food industry.”
It should be understood that the Recreation Commission is only seeking the authority to increase their mill levy by two mills. If and when they choose to utilize this increase will be because of mandates of the federal government, Henderson told the Board.
The GBRC saw 16,497 enrollments in structured programs in 2012. In addition, countless people from all age groups also participated in commission sponsored events as drop-ins or spectators. In total, they provided 250,772 opportunities to individuals to participate in recreation and leisure activities in the USD 428 community last year.
Of all the programs and opportunities offered, Henderson points out, the programs of concern are only a small fraction of those offered through the GBRC.

Fitness industry finding a voice
Zager’s Club 1 Fitness isn’t the only fitness center in Kansas feeling the pinch of the sagging economy. Last Spring, the Kansas Senate passed Senate Bill 72, which would provide property tax exemption to fitness club owners in an attempt to level the playing field for the private businesses that claimed non-profit and governmental competition through recreation centers which paid no property taxes resulted in an unfair advantage. From there it went to the House Standing Committee on Taxation, and was not advanced. Still, it’s likely that’s not the end of the efforts of the fitness industry to bring attention to the topic.
According to the story, “Kansas Senate advances bill with tax break for private fitness businesses,” (Brent D. Wistrom, Kansas City Star, March 26, 2013) Rodney Steven, owner of Genesis Health Clubs, and
several other health club owners lobbied in 2012 to impose taxes on non-profit clubs, unsuccessfully. Earlier in 2013, they also lobbied to end sales tax on memberships.

With the approval of the Recreation Commission’s request, if there is no protest, the measure receives automatic approval after 30 days.