News photo by Kayla Wikaryasz On Tuesday, Kate Kaster is seen using a treadmill at The Aplex fitness room. The Aplex recently transferred assets from the Park Family Foundation to the newly formed Aplex Community Center (CC) nonprofit.

ALPENA — According to Tony Suszek, Aplex Community Center (CC) board president, the transfer of APlex assets from the Park Family Foundation to the newly formed nonprofit will not alter operations of the facility.

Suszek announced the transfer of assets to the newly formed Aplex Community Center on Monday in a press release.

The Park Family Foundation was the private foundation that ran The Aplex for many years.

Suszek said that the transition will not affect daily operations of The Aplex nor will it affect staffing.

“It’s going to keep going on as it has,” Suszek said.

He added that a goal of the nonprofit is to make The Aplex a “hub of Alpena” for education, athletics, entertainment, and charity. The nonprofit plans on working with the community closely moving forward.

“We have already reached out to major businesses,” he said. “Many major businesses are represented on the board.”

Suszek said that the distinction between a foundation and a nonprofit is that a foundation often has money set aside from a wealthy family, for example, which is given out to the community. A nonprofit, on the other hand, receives money to enhance their community in a variety of ways.

For Aplex CC, the nonprofit will receive money through donations and grants and use that money to support the needs of The Aplex through upgrades, programs, events, et cetera.

“As a nonprofit we receive grants … we wouldn’t have extra money to give away to the community,” he said. “The money will be used to enhance Aplex services.”

Moving forward, Suszek said that the nonprofit will have to reevaluate rates of the services they offer. He explained that the Park Family Foundation wanted to “keep rates as low as possible.”

“We don’t know if we will be able to maintain that,” Suszek added.

He explained that because The Aplex was built in 1999, upgrades to the roof and other infrastructure have to be completed. He added that Alpena County and the City of Alpena are considering making The Aplex an emergency shelter due to the challenges the community faced during the ice storm that occurred in March 2025.

“They ran into the problem of not having anywhere for citizens to go during the ice storm,” he said.

Suszek also said that the potential of adding a pool to The Aplex is not a reality for the foreseeable future.

“The price tag came in astronomical,” Suszek said. “Even if we got that kind of money … the daily operations would be very expensive.”

Beyond improvements to the current facility, he said that a goal of the nonprofit is to work closely with Northern Lights Arena in the future for services and operations.

“We haven’t had that discussion but we are very open to that,” Suszek said. “We would see that as a goal for us.”

Kayla Wikaryasz can be reached at 989-358-5688 or kwikaryasz@TheAlpenaNews.com.