News Photo by Steve Schulwitz Members of the Alpena High School swim team take a practice lap in the Plaza Pool on Tuesday. Earlier in the day, the Alpena County Board of Commissioners voted to not pay for county employees’ memberships at the pool or for the fitness room at the APlex.

ALPENA — On Tuesday, the Alpena County Board of Commissioners voted to not pay for county employee memberships at the fitness room at the APlex and the Plaza Pool.

Some commissioners didn’t believe it was worth the expense since less than 10% of the more than 120 county employees utilized the membership program.

The cost for a membership at the APlex was $300 a year, while a membership with pool access included was $400 annually.

In total, it cost the county $2,500 for employee memberships with pool access and around $600 for memberships without pool access.

Several of the commissioners voted to not continue to pay for the memberships. Still, Commissioner Robin LaLonde said taking away the perk, no matter how few people use it, hurts employees, especially those who are making an effort to remain or become healthy and fit.

She said the fact that the county owns the pool and allocates money to it means the county should not be required to pay anything for employees to use it. She made a motion to allow employees to use the pool for free, but it failed.

“As responsible commissioners, we have the responsibility to offer wellness programs for employees for mental and physical health,” she said.

Commissioner Burt Francisco voted against the free use of the pool because, he said, although the county handles management, operations, maintenance, and finances for the pool, it is the taxpayers in the county that pay to keep it open and also have to pay to use it.

“The county or the employees of the county do not own the Plaza Pool,” he said. “The taxpayers do and they have to pay for memberships. Plus, with only nine people out of 120 employees using these programs, it just wasn’t worth the money.”

Interim County Administrator Jennifer Mathis said the offerings to employees to exercise at the APlex and pool didn’t have any immediate health savings insurance-wise, but the benefits would come from having employees who are healthy and less apt to call in sick or require medical treatments.

“The true benefits and savings are that you have a staff that is able to not get sick as often and be at work,” she said. “That cuts down on doctor’s appointments, medication, and improves efficiency at work because the employees miss less time.”

LaLonde said although the votes didn’t fall her way yesterday, she intends to bring the subject up again in the coming weeks. She said maybe other options can be considered or some commissioners may have a change of heart.

“I’m not going to let this go away,” she said. “We will have another vote on this.”