Dawn Park doesn’t understand how members of the Deer Lake town council could be more interested in proving they are right than responding to the outcry of the public who are upset that there won’t be a fitness centre in the community at the end of the month.
Park is the co-owner of Park Fitness, which is located in the town’s fire hall at 6 Crescent St. in Deer Lake. A business owner in the town for eight years, she’s closing her business at the end of the month.
Her lease agreement with the town expires on Oct. 31 leaving the town without a gymnasium.
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Town of Deer Lake and Park Fitness in dispute over lease agreement
However, Park said the lease agreement she had with the town was for an 18-22 month period with the understanding that the facility would be a temporary solution for the owners.
The town begs to differ on the length of the lease agreement, saying it was for an eight-month period before the owners got approval for a two-month extension after asking for six months to find another location.
Park said the minutes from the town council meeting on Dec. 4, 2017 says the agreement is a temporary solution, but it states nowhere in the documents that the lease agreement was for eight months.
Park said she invested over $15,000 into the fire hall to make it a better facility for the hundreds of clients that go to the gym and she did so with the belief that she had 18-22 months left in the fire hall.
She said to expect her as a taxpayer in the town to go out and invest in another building after spending that kind of money just wasn’t realistic.
Park also found it disappointing to hear council has stated that the facility won’t be rented out again and will be used as a garage that would house a number of assets, including the ice resurfacer from the Hodder Memorial Recreation Complex.
She scoffed at the idea of council trying to sell that idea to a community that she believes knows the difference.
Park is shocked how things can go awry so quickly but she plans on continuing to do her part in helping people when it comes to their mental and physical health.
“I put eight years into trying to build a healthy community and right now we have outcry from the community and you have outcry from me, and you’re telling me that I need to accept that the town loses its largest and only recreation provider and I lose everything I worked for because you need to put an ice resurfacer in the fire hall … I just find that hard to accept,” she said.
Park believes council should be more focused on what is best for the community, but it appears they aren’t willing to do it and she doesn’t get it.
Park will miss the friendly faces she encountered at the gym on a daily basis. She insists that her only goal has always been to provide a service to people who need it and appreciate it.
“It’s not to line my pockets. It’s to service the community. I love what I do and I will continue doing it,” she said. “I’m a big person of faith. Council might control the gym but they don’t control my future or my impact, and I would rather lose it all and keep my integrity and keep moving forward in the community.”
