Fees for Lavallette’s Exercise Classes to Rise

Checkbook/Budget (File Photo/Credit: jridgewayphotography/Flickr)

Finding themselves in the red for the year, Lavallette officials voted Monday night to raise the cost of exercise classes sponsored by the Recreation Department from $3 to $5.

“All the instructors said to me that it was no problem at all,” said Council President Anita Zalom. “In other towns, they’re charging $10 and over. This borough does so much to compliment everything that is going on.”

Several residents asked council members why a price increase was necessary, objecting to the increased cost. Borough Administrator Robert O. Bennett said since he was hired this spring, he had been reviewing the borough’s various line item accounts and found that the Recreation Department was taking in less money than in years past.

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Councilwoman Joanne Filippone said, at one time, the town’s recreation activities were funded through grants and fundraising, but many of those grant sources have dried up.

“We’ve hit this low, and that’s why we had to look at what was going on at the recreation classes and how much we were taking in,” Zalom said.

Bennett said the classes cost the borough around $12,000 per year out of the $24,000 that makes up the total recreation budget.