Raising the roof for a new floor

For the next two years, the fundraising focus at the Platte Valley Community Center will be for a new gym floor, according to Platte Valley Community Center Executive Director Joe Elder.

The seventh annual Party on the Platte begins with cocktails at 5:30 p.m., Sept. 13 at the Platte Valley Community Center.

The current gym floor was replaced in the 1960s, Lisa Burton, town of Saratoga Recreation Director said. It is a soft floor, not a wooden floor like the new gymnasiums have now, Burton explained.

Several people are working together to find the best option of what kind of floor to put in, Burton and Elder said.

Elder said he knows it will be expensive and it will probably take two years of fundraising to replace the gym floor.

Recreation Center

Burton has seen a lot of changes in the recreation department in her 10-year tenure as Saratoga's Recreation Director.

She started her job in a small office where the Public Health Office now sits, moved to the new town hall and now has a spacious office with lots of desk space at the Platte Valley Community Center gymnasium.

She needs that spacious desk, too. As recreation director, Burton is in charge of coordinating programs for youth and adults, which includes fitness activities, entertainment and cultural events. "We have a wide scope of activities," Burton said.

She said she writes and submits five to six different grants annually to the Carbon County School District No. 2 Recreation Board to cover many of the events that the recreation center sponsors.

Burton said she is surprised when she meets people who do not know the town of Saratoga has a recreation center. She advertises in the Saratoga Sun newspaper, uses the Saratoga Sun's Community Calendar and uses social media to reach out to people about what she offers at the gym.

Since moving into the Platte Valley Community Center gym, Burton has developed the programs from three cycling classes to five-to-seven classes per week.

Burton said she finds people become aware of the gym when they have the need for it.

Low impact fitness, Tai Chi, Zumba and Yoga have also been added over the years. In the beginning, there were two open gyms, now there are five.

In October, PiYo, which uses the same technique as Pilates and yoga, but at a faster pace, will be introduced.

"It's the newest thing," Burton said. "Kind of like Zumba was a few years ago."

Coordinating the schedules takes a lot of time and work, Burton explained. She has to be familiar with the school district's schedule and when they plan to use the gym, as they have priority.

The gym is used by the middle school for volleyball and wrestling practice. The gym also hosts the overflow of tournaments like the Saratoga Volleyball Invitational this weekend. During basketball season, the freshman and junior varsity play their games in the community center gym while the varsity team plays at the high school.

The schools also plan events that take place in the gym for district academic programs.

"It takes a lot of juggling with the schools having priority," Burton said. She works with six instructors on scheduling and emails them every two weeks to keep everything running smoothly.

After taking the school schedule into consideration, Burton then talks with the fitness instructors and work around their schedule. While doing that, she also has to try and determine what times meet the needs of the community for organized classes like Zumba, cycling, Tai Chi and low impact fitness classes.

In the summertime, her work doubles. While she oversees the gym facility, she also oversees the municipal pool with the water aerobics, swimming lessons and figuring out the times for the best attendance.

Add the weight room, researching and writing grants, Burton's eight-to-nine hour days are pretty full.

Cultural events

Burton brings in the Missoula Children's Theatre once a year and has to work around their schedule too. Burton said this year the theatre troop will be here the first week of December.

When planning the Missoula Children's Theatre, Burton works with Joe Elder to ensure the theater is available for practice and the play presentations.

Burton also seeks out other cultural events such as bead-working, scrap-booking and pottery classes to give the children and adults a variety of cultural choices.

In the past, dance, tumbling and gymnastic classes have been offered.

The gym has been used twice in the past four years to house the National Guard and Department of Forestry workers during the floods in 2011 and 2014. When she opens the gym up to those organizations, she has to close it down to the public.

"It's a different atmosphere when surrounded by men in uniform," Burton said.

When the National Guard comes in, Burton's plans change from planning activities to making sure there are enough supplies in the building for their needs.

"I usually spend more time at the pool when they are here, because that is around the time I am trying to get the pool ready to open," Burton said.

Challenges

One of the challenges Burton faces, especially right now, is finding someone to work during the open gyms.

For the past several years, she has had three high school students who have worked the open gym and this year, they all left for college.

Typically, she hires three. The fall is the most difficult time as many of the high school students are involved in sports.

Another challenge Burton faces is people tend to be confused about who she works for. Although she is located in the Platte Valley Community Center, she works for the town of Saratoga.

She thinks what might add to the confusion is where the recreation center, which is called Saratoga Fitness, is located. The sign on the building says "Platte Valley Community Center gymnasium". She hopes to put a sign up that says "Town of Saratoga Recreation Center" to help people see where she is located.

"The town offers a great deal of support to the community center," Burton said.

The town pays Burton's salary, pays for an employee to come in and do maintenance – such as painting the bleachers. The town has also purchased all of the weight room equipment and pays for the heating of the gymnasium and multi-purpose room, Burton said. The town paid for the remodeling of the kitchen, converting it into a weight room, making the old training room into a cycling room and the coach's office into her office.

The town pays for lawn care for all of the community center, Burton said.

"The town also paid for half of the heating system and new lights in the multipurpose room," Burton added.

"The town does a great deal to support this side of the facility," Burton said.

Using Saratoga

Fitness

Burton said the use of the Saratoga Fitness is not targeted to one age group. "We have all ages using it from young people to senior citizens."

People start using the gym as early as 5 a.m. with the new expanded hours for the weight room.

The walkers in the gym vary from season to season, Burton said. In the summer time when the weather is nice, there are not so many walkers, but in the winter, she can have as many as 10 on any given day.

To become a member at Saratoga Fitness, it is $50/year for people under the age of 65 and $35 for 65 and older.

The weight room has a separate charge, which is $150 per year for a single person, $200 for a couple and $275 for a family. Daily use is $5.

The gym is open for use during regular hours and users of the gym are required to sign a liability waiver to keep on file.

From January to April, depending on the weather, the multipurpose room at the gym is used for 4-H Shooting Sports.

Burton said if there is something people would like to see at the gym, or a program they are interested in to contact her at 326-8338 or email her at [email protected].