RANGELY I Employees used a five-day Western Rio Blanco Metropolitan (WRBM) Recreation Center closure last month to complete pool repairs and prepare the building’s new addition, a 1,600-square-foot weight room, for opening.
In addition to existing equipment, the weight room now houses a hip sled, Smith machine and cable machine along with machines for arm curls, dips, pull-ups and abs, WRBM aquatics/recreation director Camilla Kennedy said. Two additional bench press racks, new barbells and weights supplement the free weight options.
The concrete and steel structure, begun in June by PNCI Construction of Grand Junction, has pillars installed beneath it to avoid settling problems, Kennedy said. The building also features rubber-mat flooring and its own remote terminal heating and cooling unit (RTU).
WRBM Executive Director Tim Webber said estimated costs for the project, to be paid for with district general fund dollars, should be around $475,000, although final numbers are still coming in.
The former weight room next to the racquetball courts has been converted into a multi-purpose area for exercise classes, strength training and individual workouts.
Kennedy said the new addition went online at an ideal time, when increased weight use and more course offerings had combined to make workout space a limited commodity.
“We’ve never had this many classes at the rec center, so we were thinking, ‘Where are we going to put all this?’” Kennedy said. “Everything is much better now. Thirteen people were in the weight room the other day, and it wasn’t crowded at all.”
During the closure, Denver-based CEM Sales and Service also cut out rust spots and re-plastered areas of the swimming pool where rebar had corroded the pool’s Diamond-Brite lining, Kennedy said. While the pool was drained, WRBM workers power-washed it, waxed the slide and reorganized equipment.
