A city’s government is bound to serve its residents, and prior to 2015, the City of Kalona felt it was letting theirs down when it came to opportunities for recreation, socialization, and wellness.  The city-managed fitness facility at that time consisted of a gym built in 1943, a handful of treadmills and stationary bikes, limited programming, and some weight equipment.  It was not inspiring; membership was consistently around 200.

Today the downtown Community Center boasts 20,000 sq ft of space, gets an average of 5000 visits a month, and the number of memberships is closing in on 2000.  Members can swipe a card at the door for 24/7 access to the fitness center, join their friends for a game of basketball or pickleball, or take a spin or yoga class.  The difference is night and day.

How did the City turn things around? They partnered with the YMCA of Washington County.

“One of the reasons that we entered into a collaboration with the Y is we as a community just weren’t providing enough quality services,” Ryan Schlabaugh, Kalona’s city administrator, said.  “We just weren’t able to be consistent in what we brought to the public, and that gets frustrating.”

So the City signed a 28E agreement in 2015 that put the YMCA in charge of staffing and programming at the fitness facility.  Over the next three years, membership numbers ticked up and then held steady in the 500-600 range.  That moderate success was enough to capture the public’s imagination and increase confidence; in 2016 residents voted to approve funding for a new fitness facility that was ready for use in Fall 2018.

Membership numbers instantly doubled, then continued to rise.  People worried the numbers would spike initially, then fall, but “that spike stayed, and it’s continually gone up,” Schlabaugh said.  “All in all, the community has embraced this, and we see a lot of community members engaged in our facility on a daily, weekly, monthly basis.”

The YMCA of Washington County had the resources to provide the consistency the Kalona community needed.  By sharing staff members between the Washington, Wellman, and Kalona facilities, all three communities have access to a variety of classes and opportunities.  “All of the communities can benefit from that,” Amy Schulte, the YMCA’s CEO, said.

“It wasn’t just the expansion and continuation of youth programs, but it was the building up of the adult fitness classes, the senior focus classes,” Schulte said of the contribution the YMCA made to Kalona.  

The classes for seniors were especially important, she added; “That’s our biggest group that participates on a consistent, regular basis.  They were our first people who wanted to come back after COVID.  It’s not just health and wellness, it’s socialization, it’s connecting with people, building relationships.”

“All of those things,” she continued, “and the great partnership and support from the City just helped all of it to build and continue to build.”

Smaller cities face a challenge when it comes to offering amenities similar to those found in larger cities.  For the City of Kalona, staffing was an issue, especially when it came to seasonal programs and facilities such as townball and the city pool.  Every year the City would have to hire new people, and it took a while for the fresh staff to find its footing; under the YMCA’s management, the city isn’t faced with having to reinvent the wheel every year.  Its simply more efficient.

“We’ve kind of evolved from just management of a 1940’s facility with some exercise equipment and a small gym to 20,000 square feet of space, along with the pool, along with all of our outside seasonal programming,” Schlabaugh said.  “We’ve evolved into that because we’ve seen the successes, and I have no doubt that we’ll see more successes.”

With this mutually beneficial partnership in place, both the City and YMCA look forward to providing more opportunities for the community.  

A year ago, esports were introduced; the City allocated Washington County Riverboat Foundation municipal grant funds toward purchasing games and equipment, and the YMCA selected games and initiated a program that provides monitoring and advocates gaming responsibly, “bringing some of the Y values into that arena,” Schulte said.  

For the near future, Schulte has her eye on a Diabetes prevention program, and looks forward to greatly expanding aquatics offerings when the new indoor pool facility in Washington is completed in the coming year.  

The ability of YMCA members to utilize all three county facilities in Kalona, Washington, and Wellman depending on membership level is an important asset.  

“Not a lot of other counties have the opportunities that our YMCA has within the communities and within the county,” Schlabaugh said.  “It’s great to see Washington County take a lead in a model that’s a little bit different than a lot of other communities have.”

Not only is the county’s model unique, but the relationship between the City of Kalona and the YMCA of Washington County is also unique.

“I think we’re unique in the fact that we have great relationships and great partnerships, and I don’t know if that’s always the case when you’re working with cities, especially if they provided those services before,” Schulte said.  “I think that we have a great relationship with our cities that we work with and we get a lot of support from them, and that makes it easy to want to partner and easy to work together.”

The mutually beneficial relationship between the City and YMCA allows both entities to work more efficiently; they are able to meet the expectations of the community and be fiscally responsible.  It’s an impressive feat.

In fact, when people visit any of the recreational facilities in the county, Schulte said, “they’re really in awe of the nice facilities that we have in all of our communities and the investment that the city governments and the Y have made together to bring these nice facilities to Washington County and to our cities.  It just goes to show that if we work together, we can get a lot more done.”