Monterey Sports Center set to reopen
MONTEREY, Calif. (KION) Monterey Sports Center is set to reopen on Friday after months of being closed due to the pandemic.
The facility, located on E Franklin St. in Monterey, will open in incremental phases and is operating under limited hours. For now, group exercise classes, locker service, Kids Zone, personal training, showers and towel services are suspended. The center is requiring reservations for those wishing to use services.
Guests should also expect a wellness screening when you get to the door.
“We ask them a couple screening questions and take their temperature just to make sure that everyone’s safe that comes in,” Manager Andrea Willer said.
While the sports center is reopening, not all employees are back at work. 25 full-time staff members were laid off because of the pandemic.
The city laid off more than 70 employees across multiple departments, including most staff members at the center, to deal with revenue losses. The city faces an estimated $31 million dollar loss over the span of two years as a result of COVID-19.
The center brought back 30 part time workers so far. As services expand, Willer said the center hopes to bring back full time staff in increments.
“We’re just going to try to get our feet under us and figure out our new normal and then, again, as demand increases and we can expand, we will start bringing back our full time staff," Willer said.
Other city departments faced layoffs as well. As for bringing them back on, the city said in a statement to KION News, “we are continuing to reopen services as we are able to in a phased approach, based on health department guidelines, as well as funding. We are proud to have operations in both Parks & Rec Department (Sports Center) and Library Department reopen. We were the first library in the County to reopen with curbside pickup service last week and are looking forward to the soft opening of the Sports Center on Friday.”
The center is opening in phases so for now, only cardio, weight training and functional training are allowed. Guests are required to wear face coverings around the facility, but they’re optional while exercising.
Management recommends bringing your own mask, towels, mats and water bottle as water fountains have been disabled for safety purposes.
The center has spaced equipment 10 feet apart to ensure social distancing while guests exercise. A maximum of 100 people are allowed in the facility at a time, but the center brought in new equipment and says they’ll have enough for everyone to use. They’re also increasing equipment sanitation.
The pool, locker rooms, showers and other services will remain closed.
Group exercises are also suspended. But the sports center plans to open those services as they become allowed to.
“We have a sundeck that we’ve marked 10 x 10 squares so we’ll door a lot of outdoor classes on our sundeck,” Group Exercise Coordinator Lauri Ataide said.
The sports center is operating under limited hours during the week and is closed on Sunday. For more information on operations and safety protocol, click here: https://www.monterey.org/Portals/2/PDFs/C19-SIGN-ReOPENING.pdf
SPORTS CENTER HOURS:
Monday - Thursday, 8:00am - 1:00pm and 4:00pm - 7:00pm
Friday, 8:00am - 1:00pm
Saturday, 8:00am - 1:00pm
Sunday, Closed
