The Fruita Chamber of Commerce sponsored an open forum to provide the community an opportunity to air pros and cons about the proposed Community-Recreation Center on June 9 at the Fruita Monument High School Auditorium.

Diane Schwenke, president and C.E.O. of the Grand Junction Chamber of Commerce, moderated the event and set forth the rules for the event to David Karisney, former Councilman and current Planning Commissioner; Wilms Erven, Director of Culture and Recreation for Delta, Colorado, as the pro team; Linda Deaton, Planning Commissioner; and Robert Richardson, U.S. Postal System employee who spoke for the cons.

Panelists were given five questions for which they had prepared. After this session, the panelists answered questions written by the audience.

Hearing Erven, who heads Delta’s Community-Recreation Center (Bill Huddle’s Recreation Center), explain that their center has become the “heart beat of the community” and that the sales tax which funds the center was renewed by the public with 71 percent voting yes, speaks volumes for what a community center could be in Fruita.

Erven explained that the Delta center hosts weddings, is the voters’ polling place, is used for corporate events, by Hospice, Altrusa, the Red Cross along with other events and activities. She noted that the center has a very successful “Literacy is Fun Program.” The entire complex can be rented for $2,400 and it can hold 400 participants.

“Delta has a separate senior center,” she said. “The center is not open for the same hours as the recreation center. So seniors meet at their center then come to the community center where they play cards, do water aerobics and all sorts of athletic and non-athletic activities as they socialize. They really do not feel comfortable going to a health club type of place.”

Erven is a retired nurse with much administrative experience and does a spectacular job of running Delta’s Community Center, according to Tom Dodd.

Karisney felt that a center in Fruita would promote healthy life styles, intergenerational activities as well as providing a place for family activities.

“The private clubs serve a different clientele,” he said. “For years I have belonged to a private club and, I will remain a member when a community-recreation center opens here. I would not take my kids or grandkids to the health club but I would enjoy taking them to a community center to swim or shoot baskets.

“I checked with a few other community centers which opened in towns such as Aspen,” he said. “The same concerns had been there before the community centers opened. No one went out of business.”

Karisney went on to point out that some will vote against any tax, period.

“That is okay,” he said. “I respect their right to do so. I simply feel that Fruita is ready for a quality community-recreation center and that it will bring many positive things to our town. When I served on Council I continually heard ‘this or that will hurt my property value.’ Now we are proposing something that could increase the value of property in town and so we have those complaining that their assessed value will go up. I feel that slightly higher tax would be miniscule to the value added to their property.”

Deaton and Richardson contended that the center would compete with private business; that fees for a community center would be too high; that everything should be controlled by free enterprise; that a sales tax would be unfair to those who might never use the facility; that a penny out of every dollar sales tax was too much.

Yvonne Peterson figured out the hours the City could use the high school pool, which amounted to two days a week, with an hour and 20 minutes each of those days for public use. Two hours and 40 minutes each of the two days hold water aerobics and swim lessons. The pool is closed once in a while for maintenance. The summer outdoor pool recently was repaired due to bad water leakage. This band-aide will last perhaps for five to ten years. It is only open at the end of May until Labor Day and is always over crowded.

Motel pools are for guests only.

Questions from the floor seemed to center on usage fees. Opponents seemed uninformed about the lack of recreation capacity in this area.

Someone wondered about the library being part of the center. A representative from the library noted that Fruita’s branch is too small with high usage. She felt that by adding the library branch to a community center, a branch only the library organization would pay for, so much money could be saved by sharing heating, cooling bills as well as utilization of the land.

“With people coming to the center, even more people would use the library,” she said.

The forum ended. A coffee with the Council was held at Munchies to give more individuals the chance to talk about the community center June 11 with another open session at Pablo’s Pizza on June 16. Watch for more opportunities to discuss the Community Center.