Gym to reopen with New Attitudes

When the reality of Covid-19 hit Texas, our state hit the brakes. Whether or not you were wearing a seatbelt when it did, we were all thrust into uncertainty and change.

As pandemic fears and realities gripped the nation, places where people gather in large numbers were inserted in the cross hairs of state legislatures. On March 19, Texas Governor Greg Abbott announced an executive order which limited social gatherings to 10 people. Restaurants, schools, nursing homes, bars, gyms and salons, among others, were severely affected.

Even in our neck of the woods, Cass County felt the stinging effects of the decision. In Atlanta, CHRISTUS Wellness Center was just one of the many gyms closed across the state and nation.

As time wore on and Gov. Abbott allowed some signs of normalcy to return to the citizens of the Lone Star state, CHRISTUS made the decision to keep the center closed indefinitely. With hopes of keeping the doors open the gym was sold to a San Antonio-based firm that specializes in gym management.

“Our boss, Mike Riley, met the owner of the firm at a fitness conference 15 years ago so that firm has great knowledge of the fitness industry and has a great track record of helping gyms get back up and running across the nation,” said Jason Wall, who has been the gym manager for 21 years. “The goal is to let the firm help us back on our feet and then it will be run locally with a Board of Directors.”

A voting process will determine the election of board members. At the end of the contract with the firm, the board will decide if more help is needed.

“At that time we will either sign another lease or break off and run it ourselves,” Wall explained.

“The goal was to get through the first phase and make it to the next but the phases started being pushed back and I think CHRISTUS decided across the board to get out of the fitness center business,” said Terri Ray, Office Coordinator/Silver Sneakers Instructor at the gym for the past five years.

The gym was opened in 1998 by Atlanta Memorial Hospital as “New Attitudes” and the physical therapy department moved in. Besides having a bigger facility and pool to treat patients, they also filled part of the building with equipment and sold gym memberships.

When CHRISTUS bought the hospital they changed the name to the CHRISTUS St. Michael Health and Fitness Center. Now the name will return to New Attitudes and both Wall and Ray are looking for their former members to return.

“We have to have at least 450 members to open back up. We will contact the individuals who gave us their information to let them know if we are going to run it or not based on the membership turnout,” said Wall. “Members must pay in advance with a credit card or check and that information will be kept in a very secure location. We will not run the cards or cash the checks until we know we’re going to open.”

“That will account for their October fees. This is going to be community -based and we want it to stay that way. It’s really going to be up to them to sign up and keep it going because we are depending on them to get in here and keep this place going for each other,” Ray said. “There has been a lot of misinformation over the past six months. As we’ve talked to people and told them the plan they’ve expressed how this is going to be good for the gym and community as a whole. We want to get the word out any way we can and once we are back to running at a normal scale we can offer better rates and things like that.”

The team is hoping to reopen the gym on Monday, October 5. The hours of operation will be set as they start adding up the number of memberships. Memberships will be accepted Monday through Friday from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. from now through September. Current members have been sent an email with the updated information. The gym’s Facebook page has also been updated.

“Before the pandemic time periods were 6 a.m. to 8 p.m. Monday through Friday and 24 hours if you had a key fob. Upon reopening we will not distribute key fobs until the governor releases some of the restrictions concerning the virus. Then we will go back to 24 hours,” Wall said.

“We had a member count of like 800 or more people before the pandemic so we’re trying to get ahold of everyone we can think of. It’s not easy trying to call 800-plus folks during this time,” Ray mentioned.

“The unfortunate part of this is we are having to charge people a new start up fee because we have to have some sort of operating cash once we get going,” Wall said.

“We used to have rates for families which had a discount price but since we are rebuilding our customer base we have a set rate.”

The fees for New Attitudes will be $30 for seniors with a $50 start-up fee, $60 for senior couples with an $80 start-up fee, $45 for individuals with a $50 start-up fee, $70 for couples with an $80 startup fee and $95 for a family with an $80 start-up fee.

Add-ons are $25 each up to two individuals. For family rates members must be “immediate” family members living in the same household. This includes children up to the age of 21.

Children age 21 or older needs to have their own membership. Family rates max out at two add-ons even if they have three or four under the age of 21.

“We will have structured classes that fit COVID guidelines thereby we will be adding more classes so our hours will change as the pandemic changes,” said Ray.

“The fitness center offers more than just treadmills and weights. The pool will open at a later date as will the children’s nursery coinciding with COVID guidelines but classes from yoga to spin will take place. We have unisex classes that will fit any person from seniors to young adults,” Wall said. “We do have personal trainers who can work with groups or do one– on-one training.”

“When the nursery opens you can bring children anywhere from three months to 11-years-old because at 12 you can join the gym with a parent,” Ray said.

“A cool thing we are looking at doing with our classes is online workouts since we can only have 10 people at a time in our aerobics class. They would be able to login using their member ID and watch live from home. You have to be a member to enjoy that online avenue,” Wall said. “We are really excited to get people back in here and hope to keep the same atmosphere we’ve created over the years since we opened in 1998.”

With COVID-19 still an active pandemic in the state of Texas the services that New Attitudes provides will look different until Texas is able to move to Phase 3 of the re-opening plan.

Some of the changes include but are not limited to: Screening of every individual entering the gym (temperature check and questions), masks will be optional most of the day but there will be times where they are required, some cardio machines (treadmills, bikes, etc.) will not be available in order to provide proper social distancing, no child care services until Gov. Abbott moves the state into Phase 3, no locker or shower access until we are moved to Phase 3, limited swimming laps only with no more than six individuals in the pool at one time (when the pool becomes available for use), group exercise classes will be limited to 10 individuals in the class at one time and all members will be required to wipe down the exercise equipment prior to and after use.

Additional guidelines and expectations may change as the status of COVID-19 evolves.

“We have the proper cleaning supplies and ask that members help to wipe down stations where they have been,” said Wall. “Then we follow up cleaning at least three to four times an hour to ensure a safe environment for everyone.”

Anyone looking to sign up or for any other questions or concerns you can contact the gym through Facebook or call 903-796- 6105. You can also visit the gym located at 206 N. William St. in Atlanta.