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Dunmore Community Center Gym Back Open

DUNMORE — The gym at the Dunmore Community Center reopened this week. Borough officials closed it last month when they discovered the walls were not attac...

DUNMORE -- The gym at the Dunmore Community Center reopened this week. Borough officials closed it last month when they discovered the walls were not attached to the roof.

The gym is fixed, but the borough has opened an investigation to determine who should pay for repairs.

After almost two months without it, residents of Dunmore are now allowed to use their community center's gym on Monroe Avenue.

And it's true what they say, you don't know what you've got until it's gone.

"Some of our seniors have actually put on a little weight because they haven't been able to walk in the morning. So, they were back first thing in the morning on Monday walking around and trying to get back in shape," said Jeanne Hugenbruch, who runs the Dunmore Senior Center.

The Dunmore Community Center is home to the senior center, a Head Start program, and some county offices.

Last month, borough officials discovered a big problem with the center's gym. A problem that goes back to 2006 when the center was built. The gymnasium's walls were not attached to the roof.

Workers added brackets to connect the walls and roof and re-painted the place. It seems all the news coverage of the controversial contracting mix-up means the gym will be getting more use than it used to.

"I've been getting calls from volleyball leagues, basketball leagues. People know we're here and they want to come. And now I've got to figure out how to make it happen," said the director of the community center, Chris Kearney.

Though having the gymnasium back is priceless to some of the people who use it, repairs cost the Borough of Dunmore about $80,000. Now, borough leaders are trying to figure out if someone else should be responsible for footing the bill.

The borough's manager said insurance will not cover the cost of repairs. The borough hired lawyers to see if the architect or the builder would be responsible to pay for the work.

Borough officials said it will be a while until they have that answer. So, community center employees are just focused on getting the gym back up and running.

"A good thing, a positive, as we've been talking about, we get to restart everything here and redo everything We have a membership drive going on," Kearney added.

Dunmore Community Center employees said they have already seen a spike in members. 75 new children showed up on the gym's first day back open.

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