16980 Kercheval Pl • McCourt Building • Grosse Pointe, MI 48230 • 313.882.6900 • Office Hours: Monday-Friday 9am-5pm

16980 Kercheval Pl. • Grosse Pointe, Michigan 48230 • 313.882.6900 • Monday-Friday 9am-4pm

By Kate Vanderstelt | on November 23, 2021

Photo by Renee Landuyt The new gym includes a stationary bike, elliptical machine, rowing machine, treadmill, Smith machine, power rack and more.

GROSSE POINTE PARK — After city council approved a donation from the Grosse Pointe Park Foundation Sept. 27, the public safety department finished the revitalization of its gym and celebrated with a ribbon-cutting ceremony Thursday, Nov. 18.

Lena Carlile, president of the foundation, said it wanted to donate money for the public safety department’s gym because their job requires them to be physically fit and they deserve a good facility to allow them to stay in shape.

“Most police and fire departments around the country have modern, up-to-date fitness centers and encourage officers to work out regularly,” Deputy Director Jim Bostock said at the September council meeting. “The fitness room here at our public safety department building is not only antiquated, but some of the equipment is inoperable and sometimes dangerous.”

Council approved acceptance of the donation at the September meeting and the public safety department got to work renovating the space.

Before the foundation’s donation, the public safety gym had floors made of mats from a horse stall and interlocking flooring like what would be seen in a kindergarten or playroom; a treadmill taken off the curb; and equipment falling apart.

Photo by Renee Landuyt Director Bryan Jarrell points out the atrocities of the old gym for the public safety department, before unveiling the new gym developed using funds donated by the Grosse Pointe Park Foundation.

“In the days preceding the generosity of the foundation,” Director Bryan Jarrell said, “if the guys thought, ‘We could really use some more weights,’ or, ‘We could use this type of bar,’ they’d all pool their money to go buy it and then put it in use. And so you’ll see the transformation that the foundation has really (allowed) us to have.”

At close to $40,000 spent, the brand new gym has EPDM rubber flooring and a stationary bike, elliptical machine, rowing machine, treadmill, Smith machine, power rack, barbells and free weights. Still to come are a leg press hack squat machine and a leg extension and curl machine, which are experiencing shipping delays.

A new television and sound bar top off the room’s additions.

The gym has been open to public safety employees a few weeks and Jarrell said morale is high with comments about how much the employees appreciate the new facility.

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