Panel considers putting veterans fitness center inside old C.R. City Hall

CEDAR RAPIDS - The flood-damaged Veterans Memorial Building on May's Island here isn't home to City Hall anymore. City Hall has moved down the street, into the former federal courthouse, at 101 First St. SE.

It is a move with an upside, though, that is allowing the city's Veterans Memorial Commission, which has the central responsibility for the renovation of the Vets building, to rethink the facility's use, making the veteran a center of attention.

In that regard, commission members Tuesday night expressed support for a proposal to use a small piece of the building as a center for physical therapy and physical fitness that has the capacity to care for disabled veterans new and old in a way that other therapy and fitness centers can't.

Commission members talked about the issue that a fitness and therapy center in the Veterans Memorial Building might compete with existing centers, but commission member Pat Reinert thought the center that the commission was considering could complement what is available in the city and not compete with it.

Commission member Jerry Ziese reported that he is meeting with Department of Veterans Affairs officials in Iowa City this week to see if they might be willing to relocate their physical therapy satellite office in Cedar Rapids into the Veterans Memorial Building as part of a plan for therapy and fitness center. Commission member John Powers noted that the existing satellite office is much too small.

Ziese and Mike Jager, executive director for the commission, are working with Shane Lamson, a Navy veteran of the war in Iraq, who is looking to create a startup business called Vet and Family Fitness. Lamson's idea is to lease space for his business in the Veterans Memorial Building and provide the therapy and fitness center that the commission is seeking for the building.

Jager said the first phase of the building renovation is expected to be complete this fall, at which time some room would be available for a fitness center.

Lamson said his idea is that veterans, families of veterans and general members of the community could use the Veterans Memorial Building facilities with a sliding fee schedule that might provide discounts for veterans.

Jager said too often veterans in the Cedar Rapids metro area now must go to the VA hospital in Iowa City for services, and he said they will be able to get them more speedily once the proposed center at the Veterans Memorial Building opens.