Civic Center set for wellness coordinator

By AMY SATTERWHITE / Staff Reporter for the Southern Standard

Civic Center officials are planning to ring in the New Year with a wellness and fitness coordinator, expecting to have someone on board by mid-January.

The new position will primarily be centered around wellness and aquatic activities, Parks and Recreation Director Carlene Brown said.

The position pays around $28,000 a year. Officials hope to offset the salary with revenue created by new programs and, in essence, make the position pay for itself. Brown noted duties of the coordinator extend beyond running the new weight room or the new city pool.

Although the coordinator will assist with exercise and fitness goals, Brown said the idea is for more expansive wellness programs to be offered that focus upon nutrition, diet control, healthy lifestyles in general, smoking cessation, pre- or post-natal wellness and programs for the police and fire department employees.

Officials also hope to develop and improve aerobic programs. Low-impact and step aerobics and cardio kickboxing are already offered, but officials hope to add aerobic programs like senior aerobics or weight-lifting aerobics, as examples.

In the aquatics area, the coordinator will be responsible for hiring, training and supervising daily pool staff, promoting the pool and developing water fitness programs – even to the degree of helping someone with medical problems via a wellness aquatics program.

Brown said although there are other places like River Park Hospital or USA Gym which offer wellness or fitness programs, the city wants to add availability.

“There are two areas we wanted to grow in. One was in wellness and one was in aquatics,” said Brown. “I think these are two areas our community is just going to be thrilled with. More opportunity for people to have healthy lifestyles is needed in our community. We have a lot of great facilities in Warren County that already offer this … but we have a large population with a lot of needs and one more opportunity is going to help us accomplish those goals for those people.”