By Betsy Finklea
The finances at the Wellness Center were discussed at the July meeting of the Dillon City Council.
Councilman Johnny Eller said that the Wellness Center lost $150,000 this year. He said that he wanted to know what they could do to get that deficit somewhat down. He said it has been trending over the years. He said the Wellness Center was a great thing, and he didn’t know if they needed to raise the rates, but he thought they needed to watch it.
City Manager Glen Wagner said that a lot of that was for repairs. Wagner said the rates had been the same since 2007.
Councilman Phil Wallace said that he was totally with Eller. “We need to run the golf course and fitness center as a business, but did we lose money?” Wallace asked. “We spent money above what we brought in. Now is that a loss?”
“We are here to steward the money properly. We are here to give a better quality of life. I don’t know whether I would look at that as lost money. We need to do a better job business-wise, and if we need to go up on the rates, and, it’s time to do that, I think we should do that. I think at the end of the day, if our receipts plus our two percent hot meals tax where we cleared $71,000, I don’t call that a loss,” Wallace said.
“Johnny, I’m not trying to contradict you,” Wallace said. “I am trying to help us understand… at the end of the day we are getting a better quality of life. I can’t think of anything in the last 25 years that has made a more positive impact on the quality of life in Dillon County than that Wellness Center.”
“I am not disputing you, Dr. Wallace,” said Eller.
“Am I wrong?” asked Wallace. “I don’t think anybody thinks differently than that.”
Councilman Douglas Jackson said they may want to look at the daily users. Eller said they were averaging about $3,000 a month. He said that he didn’t know how to convince them to become members.
Eller said that just looking at expenses that he didn’t know how to curb that. Wagner said one of their biggest expenses was electricity and gas. There were repairs. They were $6,000 over on part-time salaries and approximately $2,000 over on full-time salaries.
Eller asked if they increased rates would they lose members. Wagner said that he didn’t know if they would lose a lot.
Wagner then commented on the revenue stream. He said rentals are not as good as they have been in the past. Membership is $6,000 less than anticipated. Daily users are up $7,000 and that increases annually.