Gemini Center set to debut this weekend
By Kevin Kelley
Fairview Park
Published Jan. 9, 2008

Santa must have stuffed a lot of Christmas stockings with gift certificates for memberships at the city’s new $19 million recreation center.

Before Christmas, rec center memberships numbered around 400.

But as of Friday, 916 memberships were sold, city recreation department officials said. The goal for the first year is to sell between 3,500 and 4,000 memberships.

“We’ve actually sold a lot of them for Christmas,” said Tim Pinchek, the city’s recreation director.

Residents who purchase memberships before April 1 will get 15 months of membership for the price of 12, Pinchek said.

Annual membership fees for individual residents will be $100. A family of four can join for $275. High school students will be charged $75. Those 60 and older can join for $75.

An individual whose employer is located in the city, and who thus pays city income tax, can join for $200. Family corporate rates begin at $375 for a family of four.

Pinchek said residents are starting to come and visit the Gemini Center, located at 21225 Lorain Road, now that they see it’s built and they see the electronic sign in front in operation.

Jack Nairus purchased a membership at the center Friday so he can do his daily workout and use the center’s 1/12th mile track.

“I like to walk outside during the summer but not in the winter,” said Nairus, who lives less than a block away from the Gemini Center.

The official groundbreaking ceremony for the center takes place at 11 a.m. Saturday. Public tours of the facility will be given from noon to 2 p.m.

Saturday evening, from 7 p.m. to midnight, the Gemini Center will host a gala celebrating the center’s opening. Tickets for the adult-only event, which are sold out, cost $25.

The center officially opens to members at noon Sunday.

The center’s community rooms, which have kitchen facilities and can seat 250, have already been booked for 20 events, including three wedding receptions. Fairview High School and St. Joseph Academy will hold their after-prom events there this spring.

The original plan was for the center to open between Christmas and Dec. 31, city officials said. However, last-minute odds-and-end-type issues prevented the center from opening by year’s end.

“The delivery guys are still delivering stuff,” Pinchek said Friday.

And aerobics classes scheduled for this week had to be delayed one week.

“The week of the 14th is when everything gets going,” said Kim O’Farrell, the city’s deputy director of recreation.

Participants in the rec program’s basketball league have been allowed to use the facility’s basketball courts for practice since Jan. 2. And the freshmen boys basketball team from Fairview High School began using the courts for practice Monday.

Pinchek said waiting for the center to open has been the hardest part.

“This has been four years of my life,” Pinchek said of the planning for this month’s opening.

The recreation department has grown from four full-time employees last year to 10 this year, Pinchek said. Many have been putting in nine and 10-hour days in recent weeks in preparation for the center’s opening.

The center’s roughly 50 cardio exercise units are awaiting residents ready to get fit, and its 20 free weights are ready for those who want to pump up.

But there’s still no official word on when the center’s two pools will open.

The city fired its Michigan-based pool contractor when it fell far behind schedule. The bonding company is expected to select a new contractor to finish the pool this week, Pinchek said.

The February 2005 vote to pass a .5 percent income tax increase to build the city’s recreation center passed by only 59 votes.