The Platte County Community Centers have become the cornerstone for wellness and fitness.
The centers, operated by the YMCA of Greater Kansas City, offer a wide-range of aerobic, aquatic and fitness classes for all age groups.
According to Daniel Erickson, parks director for Platte County, the average daily number of people who visited the Platte County Community Center North in Platte City in the month of September was 567. Average daily number of people who visited the Platte County Community Center South in Parkville during September was 1,229.
There are currently 6,427 “membership units” at the community centers. A membership unit may be household membership or as an individual. The 6,427 membership units represent 18,242 people, Erickson said.
As the facilities continue to have record membership, they are poised to receive annual improvements.
Back in 2015, the Platte County Community Center South in Parkville, which opened in February of 2005, opened new swimming lanes and group exercise studios.
At the Platte County Community Center North in Platte City, a new eight lane lap pool was added for recreational and competitive swimming.
These upgrades were made to accommodate growth and improve the overall experience at the climate-controlled facilities. These capital improvements were backed by the voter-approved half-cent sales tax.
By Dec. 2, members will notice another improvement on the fitness floor. Dozens of pieces of outdated exercise equipment with be swapped out and replaced with brand-new machines. The annual replacement of equipment is completely funded by membership fees, said Daniel Erickson, director of parks and recreation for Platte County.
“We have a record membership at the Y,” said Erickson. “It’s largely in part because we have nice equipment in the facilities and the YMCA does a great job of running the programs.”
Treadmills, upright stationary bikes, rowers and dumbbells are just some of the new fitness upgrades at the Platte County Community Centers.
The total cost of the new equipment purchases approved this week is $74,000.
Core Health & Fitness, Foremost Fitness Group, Precor Inc, Johnson Health Tech North America and Octane Fitness offered the lowest bids and were awarded contracts for equipment purchases.
On Monday, the Platte County Commission personally thanked the community for their continued support of these centers.
“Thank you so much for maintaining our community centers in an acceptable way,” said Presiding Commissioner Ron Schieber. “We have big investment dollars in those, and we need to continue to maintain them at a high level.”
Each year, new equipment breathes new life into the centers, so it can harness opportunities for community development, performance, after school learning and family strengthening.