North Iowa Wellness Center opens

     The North Iowa communities have a new place to get fit, with the opening of the brand new wellness center at North Iowa Community School in Buffalo Center. The school held a ribbon cutting and open house at the facility last Sunday, Feb. 9, and the wellness center is now open for use.

     The original purpose of the new addition is to serve as a tornado safe room for students and staff at the school, as well as community members. The safe room portion of the building doubles as a gymnasium, and the school received nearly $1 million from FEMA and more than $125,000 from the Iowa Homeland Security and Emergency Management Division to build it.

     While the gym had to be built slightly smaller than a standard gymnasium in order to meet FEMA’s grant requirements, it will serve as valuable practice and P.E. space for the school and can be used by the community. The safe room can hold up to 732 people, and the door on the north end of the building will unlock in the event of a weather emergency so people outside can take shelter. The safe room was built to withstand an F4 tornado with winds of up to 250 mile per hour.

     Phase two of the project included building a community wellness center next to the safe room, which includes a fitness room, weight room and walking track. The school purchased about $37,000 worth of new fitness equipment for the facility, with help from the North Iowa Athletic Boosters. The school’s existing weight room equipment was installed in the new weight room on the main floor of the new facility.

     The total cost for the project is about $2.9 million, and the school is paying off the balance not covered by grants through the use of SAVE (sales tax) funds. The project is scheduled to be paid off by 2030.

     The school is offering memberships to the wellness center at a cost of $50 per year, which grants 24/7 access to the facility when it’s not in use for a school function. Members will be able to enter the wellness center using a key card, while access to the rest of the school building will be restricted for safety purposes.

     Members will need to attend a training class, and upcoming dates for classes include Wednesday, Feb. 19 and Wednesday, Feb. 26 at 5 p.m.

     For more information, visit the wellness center page at www.northiowa.org or call 641-562-2525.