Kaliseum collab: County-health center partnership weighed

KALKASKA — A specific conference of the Kalkaska County Board of Commissioners will concentration on a likely partnership among the Kaliseum and the Kalkaska Memorial Overall health Heart.

The Kalkaska Board of Commissioners will discuss with KMHC representatives how the healthcare centre could use room at the Kaliseum and flesh out some of the finer particulars for this kind of an arrangement at a meeting on April 6.

In the past yr, KMHC reps have expressed an fascination in building use of open space in the Kaliseum recreation sophisticated, commissioner Bob Baldwin said. He pressured that the talks are in pretty early phases and that the board of commissioners have not been given a formal proposal from the health middle, but he and the other commissioners are fascinated in discovering the partnership.

“The healthcare facility is fascinated in employing some of the Kaliseum services. We’re intrigued in creating the Kaliseum profitable. And we’re seeing what we may be ready to do in terms of how to make that get the job done,” Baldwin claimed. “In phrases of what the particulars would be, how it would do the job, the way it would happen is even now fully up in the air.”

On March 16, commissioner Katina Banko introduced the thought of a partnership in between KMHC and the Kaliseum to the complete board of commissioners soon after it was talked over in a subcommittee and the board agreed to go over it further more at a distinctive conference in April, in accordance to unapproved board assembly minutes.

Even if the well being middle were being to lease the full creating, men and women would nonetheless be capable to use it recreationally as they ordinarily do, Kaliseum director John Starr stated. The partnership would also mean that KMHC would dedicate some resources to the building’s maintenance. At confront benefit, the choice is a no-brainer, Starr explained.

“If they want to commit the time, exertion and revenue to do it, for the sake of the Kaliseum, I consider it will make 100 p.c perception,” Starr explained.

Logistically, it makes sense due to the fact of the Kaliseum’s proximity to the clinic, the hospital’s accessibility to funding and the Kaliseum’s will need for repairs, Starr claimed.

Earlier, Starr stated he has spoken with KMHC reps about turning the recreation intricate into an enhanced community wellness and wellness area or converting the pool place into a health and fitness center area for bodily therapy sufferers.

Baldwin stated he wouldn’t comment on details about the alternatives for the partnership or his opinions on it, but that he’s interested in any kind of partnership that would improve the Kaliseum. He said he thinks the Kaliseum should really be self-ample and taxpayers should really not have to shoulder its expenses, which is a posture he has taken because his marketing campaign for his commissioner seat.

“I’m fascinated in any type of a partnership that would make the Kaliseum extra purposeful, much more self-supporting,” Baldwin said.

The Kaliseum is funded by a .25-mill working tax. Kalkaska County voters accepted the Kaliseum operational millage in 2008, 2012 and 2016, but turned down a renewal ask for in August 2020. In November 2020, county leaders questioned voters to reconsider the tax and it was accepted by about 900 votes for 4 many years from 2021 as a result of 2024.

The ice rink and swimming pool facility prior to 2020, the Kaliseum experienced fallen into disrepair. Mechanical problems with regards to the lack of right separation in between the air and ventilation methods in between the chilly and heat locations of the making led to structural destruction, together with a rusted pool space ceiling, consultants documented in 2019.

A lot of of the challenges are attributable to earlier many years of minimum routine maintenance funding and failure to restore or change gear, consultants earlier noted.

The facility’s pool location has remained shut for two a long time right after a rusty nut and bolt fell from the ceiling, as previously claimed by the Report-Eagle. The pool region is established to be despatched out for bid shortly, Starr stated, but most people today are in settlement that it should really not be turned into a pool region once more.

In the previous yr and a half, routine maintenance at the Kaliseum has picked up. Starr reported he has experienced do the job carried out on the building’s boilers, a new golf simulator set up, most places painted and cleaned and the hockey rink’s compressor replaced, Starr claimed.

The total of revenue created by the Kaliseum and the selection of site visitors has increased in the earlier two many years as effectively, Starr stated. The complex’s managers’ most significant issue is continuing to fund routine maintenance and repairs, which he thinks KMHC could genuinely enable with.

“The fantastic information is: Our quantities are going forward. We keep rising profits, expanding readers,” Starr reported. “If this all came to fruition, that’d be a key match-changer for this small town without question.”

KMHC representatives did not promptly return a request for remark on Friday.

The board of commissioners assembly will be held on April 6 at 6 p.m. in the Kalkaska Commissioner Chambers Administration Developing. Community can participate almost on Zoom. Facts on the Zoom link and Assembly ID can be found right here: https://www.kalkaskacounty.net/authorities/county_notices_and_minutes/.