By Andru McCracken

Andrea Lehenbauer, Valemount’s resident physiotherapist, said that a forum aimed at developing a fitness centre turned up many supporters.

Lehenbauer and a group of fitness enthusiasts have funding from the Columbia Basin Trust to complete a feasibility study for the centre. Lehenbauer said that they want to take advantage of a Towns for Tomorrow grant that could pay up to 80% of the capital costs of such a project.

“We had the open forum to tell people about it and to explain our goals and vision,” she said. Lehenbauer said those who turned out were in favour of the proposed centre.

She said that apart from a weight lifting facility, a studio area and standard equipment for a fitness facility, it could also be a venue for health care professionals to work in.

She said that there are a lot of health promotion practitioners from massage therapists to chiropractors who could collectively strengthen their business cases by working at a single facility.

She said that there were also many community clubs without a permanent venue to call home, like the ballet school and karate club, who may benefit from the centre.

Lehenbauer said the feasibility study has to develop an overall business plan, ensuring that the centre can cover their operational costs over time.

She said that there would be a community aspect to the building, which would bring generations together.

“It’s not just somewhere you work out, but somewhere the community meets,” she said.

She believes that there is a need for such a centre.

“Part of where this idea stems from is my interaction with my clients. They tell me they want somewhere to go (to exercise),” she said.

Lehenbauer said that there is growth in Valemount and a fitness centre is something that people who are moving here look forward to.

Lehenbauer herself decided to move to Valemount from Jasper because her physiotherapy business just kept on growing.

“It was time for me to make the jump, time for me to pursue what I felt community physiotherapy should look like,” she said.

Mayor Jeannette Townsend has given her blessing to the project and offered the group institutional land next to the high school to build the centre.