A fitness centre is coming to Lake Cowichan.
The Cowichan Valley Regional District recently announced that they are moving ahead with the installation of a fitness centre inside the Cowichan Lake Sports Arena.
The 1,305 square foot fitness centre will feature a rowing machine, treadmill, fitness power rack, recumbent linear cross-trainer, recumbent bike, elliptical, force functional trainer, weight bench, weight rack and weights, medicine balls, hand weights, kettlebells, ropes and pullies.
There is already space inside the Cowichan Lake Sports Arena for the fitness centre and all that will be required is the purchase of the equipment, which is budgeted at $65,000.
Linda Blatchford, the CVRD’s manager of Cowichan Lake Recreation, said the installation of the fitness centre is significant for the community.
“It’s a big deal,” she told CHEK News. “It’s exciting and it will be nice for Lake Cowichan to finally have a fitness studio. There have been privately owned fitness studios in Lake Cowichan in the past, but this is the first time there will be one that will be paid for by taxpayers.”
The idea of a regional district-owned dedicated fitness studio at the Cowichan Lake Sports Arena has been around for years. One was originally part of major renovations that took place at the arena in 2011 and the space for it was built, but the CVRD never ended up buying the equipment.
“The area where the fitness centre was already in place in 2011 but the renovation was expensive so the purchase of the weight equipment was cut,” said Blatchford.
In the years that followed, there were shifting needs at the CVRD and buying equipment for the weight room became less and less of a priority until recently.
“When COVID-19 hit and we had to lay off staff, that’s how we ended up with a surplus,” Blatchford said.
Blatchford said with the excess money, the CVRD Cowichan Lake Recreation Commission felt it would be wise to allocate some of the money for fitness equipment. She said she’s pleased that something good came from the pandemic.
“It was a good thing that came from a bad situation,” she said.
The fitness centre is expected to open at the Cowichan Lake Sports Arena in the fall.
Nicholas Pescod
