Kalona City Council met at the Kalona Public Library June 4. Photo by Sam McIntosh.

The Kalona City Council approved two contracts with the YMCA of Washington County at their recent meeting.

The first contract was for the Kalona Community Center to become an official YMCA branch. City Administrator Ryan Schlabaugh shares what the city will be paying to the Y, “So our cost monthly to the Y stays the same, $3,750 and that helps A: offset the expenses that they have there. And also it allows us as a community to control the rates that are offered to residents that live within the city limits.”

The membership rates for Kalona residents to use the center are $214 per year for families, $136 per year for adults, and $72 per year for seniors 65 and older.

Schlabaugh also presented a contract for the Y to manage the Kalona Municipal Pool, “We looked at what we had spent for pool management in the past and we allocated $4,500 for lifeguard training and staffing, staff scheduling, onsite opening procedures, swim lessons, they’ll take us through all our yearly meeting with public health and so forth. So they will essentially oversee our pool and they’re also going to do pool certifications for new lifeguards.”

Schlabaugh says they’ve had success increasing lifeguards’ interest once the partnership with the Y was made known. The council approved both the three-year contract for the community center and the one-year contract for the pool.