By Tucker Henderson

Reporter

The “old band room” as it’s often referred to in the City Center building has taken on a new purpose and has been providing local community members with a place to exercise and stay in shape.

The New York Mills Fitness Center officially opened on May 9, 2022 through partnership between the Perham Area Community Center, the City of NY Mills and the NY Mills School District, who donated some of their exercise equipment when they upgraded last year.

“Everything is owned by the city and the PACC handles the membership part of it,” said Leigh Shebeck, Executive Director of the Perham Area Community Center. “Some of the equipment that’s over there was donated by the school. We just donated a bunch of other equipment that the city hasn’t put in there yet. That will be replacing the school equipment that’s in there eventually.”

The Fitness Center is outfitted with a range of Selectorized machines for anything from triceps, biceps, leg curl and extensions, abductor, hip, inner and outer thigh, and shoulder press among other options. There are two New Life fitness treadmills and the station to station machines available.

“Right now the cardio and Selectorized machines in there are geared more towards your seniors,” said Shebeck. “Anybody can use them. The school athletes used to use them. The fitness trend towards the younger members are the free weights and benches, squat racks, all those sorts of things. We don’t have room for dumbbell racks. A lot of people are into the power lifting, dead lifting, and CrossFit style workout, but we don’t have enough space inside there for that equipment, those are geared more towards the younger workout groups.”

Shebeck noted that there has already been questions raised about newer machines, different equipment and even expansion of the Fitness Center.

“We get a lot of requests on when we’re going to bring in newer equipment or different equipment and expand the Fitness Center,” he said. “That something in partnership with the city, we need the space to expand and once we expand, we need the money to purchase new equipment. Right now, it is limited for certain groups of members.”

Individuals and couples over the age of 18 years of age that are interested are invited to go online at www.perhamareacommunitycenter.net to read up on the different options for membership and their benefits.

“They can go to the website or they can call us,” said Shebeck. “We have two different options. To actually sign up for the membership, you would have to come here to the PACC to activate your fob. Option one is to be a member of the PACC and purchase a 24/7 access fob, you automatically have access to the NY Mills facility, so you’re a member of both.

“Option two, if you’re not going to use the PACC for anything and you just want the NY Mills Fitness Center, then you can purchase the membership for just NY Mills,” Shebeck continued. “If you’re 18 and up, you can prepay for an annual membership for $240 just for the Mills Fitness Center, it’s $20 a month. It’s 24/7 with the fob, the doors are unlocked, so you need the fob to get in and you have to be 18 years or older to be a member.”

So far, Shebeck said that feedback has been positive about the Fitness Center in NY Mills.

“We got a lot of positives that it’s in the community, we’re trying to do something for the community,” he said.

For those who would like some of both worlds, the PACC membership offers the larger facility with more equipment, while also allowing for a satellite workout area closer to home in the NY Mills facility.

“We’re still in the process of going through a $12 million expansion,” said Shebeck of the PACC. “We have all brand new weight rooms, dumbbell areas, we have the Selectorized machines upstairs in our senior fitness area. We have an entire second floor of cardio equipment and then down below that we have an entire floor of free weight area. All of that is over here with the PACC membership if you wanted that.

“In the wintertime, if they didn’t feel like driving over to the PACC and just wanted to do some of the machines over there, then it would be a good fit because they would automatically have access to the Mills location when they have a PACC membership,” Shebeck continued.