Corporate family rec rates to increase
Memberships to be available
for some retired city, school, library employees
By Kevin Kelley
Fairview Park
Published Nov. 26, 2008

The cost for families of individuals who work in Fairview Park to buy annual membership fees to the city’s recreation center will go up in 2009.

The corporate family rates for an individual who works but does not reside in Fairview Park will jump $175 under legislation passed unanimously by City Council Nov. 17.

The corporate family rate for four members will jump from $375 to $550. For five family members, the rate jumps from $425 to $600, and for six members, the rate jumps from $475 to $650.

Youth, individual and senior rates for nonresidents working in the city will stay at $100, $200 and $150, respectively.

Recreation Department Director Tim Pinchek said the new rates are fairer. Under the current rate structure, the family corporate rates are not comparable to other family rates, he said.

“It was not set up correctly at the beginning,” Pinchek said of the existing corporate family rate. “We just wanted to be consistent with all the rates.”

Memberships under the existing rates can be purchased through Dec. 31.

The agreement between the city and school district requires the city to submit a fee schedule for the next calendar year on or before Dec. 1.

Under a new “legacy program,” rec center memberships will soon be offered to retirees with 10 or more years of service to the city, Fairview Park City Schools and the Fairview Park Library.

Documentation of the 10 years of service must be provided to obtain a membership, according to the new ordinance.

The legacy/retiree rate is $395 annually, $495 for two family members.

City officials had considered offering memberships to former city employees with 10 or more years of service, Mayor Eileen Patton said. However, city officials wanted to hold off on such a program until the facility had been operations for at least a year, she said.

The plan to add a program for municipal retirees made news recently when Jim Held, a North Olmsted resident who worked for the Fairview Park Fire Department, sought a Gemini Center membership. Held was injured several years ago while battling a blaze in Rocky River and is now confined to a wheelchair. He sought to purchase a rec center membership so he could use the Gemini Center’s pool for physical therapy.

When Held and several former coworkers came to a recent City Council meetings to ask that a membership be offered to the disabled firefighter, Patton told them that the legacy program for retirees was in the works.

Held and his former coworkers expressed frustration that an exception was not quickly being made for a firefighter injured in service to the city.

For its part, council seemed reticent to pass legislation making an exception for a single individual, fearing such action would open the door to numerous other special requests.

When contacted by West Life Monday, Held said he was undecided if he would join the Gemini Center under the new legacy program, for which he qualifies.

“Actually, I’ve got mixed emotions about it,” Held said.

Held noted that he first contacted city officials about his desire to use the new rec center pool on July 18.

“It’s taken this long for them to allow me to purchase a membership,” he said.

Held, who currently uses facilities at the Brooklyn rec center and Lifeworks of Southwest General in Middleburg Heights, said he wanted to use the Gemini Center pool because it is closer to his North Olmsted residence. Held told council that he tried the pool at the North Olmsted rec center but said he found it not to be handicapped-friendly. The lift chair at the pool there was not easy to use, he said.

Held said he’s not overly impressed by the new membership program for retirees.

“The mayor’s original insensitivity left a sour taste in my mouth,” Held told West Life.

Patton has said she empathizes with Held’s situation but that her hands were legally tied by the previous legislation restricting membership to city residents or those who work in the city.

On the Web:

• Fariview Park Recreation Department / Gemini Center