Wellness center

McCamey has a couple of new feathers to put in its cap.

The town is on track to lose that spare tire and get a little makeover while it's at it.

A new wellness center in the works for this summer and an unrelated $65,000 grant from Keep Texas Beautiful in mid-March should bring a little glitz and fitness to the city, which, according to the 2000 Census, has a population of about 1,600.

Administrators at the McCamey County Hospital District are preparing to break ground on an 11,000-square-foot wellness center that will include amenities such as an indoor track, a gym, a multipurpose program room and an indoor pool that should open new avenues of physical therapy for the elderly.

Hospital Chief Financial Officer Judie Gulihur said officials are working with an Austin architectural firm to trim the price tag of the project, which they hope to begin building in July. Initial cost estimates were about $2.5 million, but spikes in construction costs brought that figure closer to $4 million.

Most of the facility's funding comes from the county's share of tobacco settlement payments, which state law mandates must be spent on wellness projects, she said.

City officials have had a hard time finding specific programs to which to allocate the money, so they decided to lump it all together and use it for the facility. Gulihur said the hospital also has other state funding options available to help them build the center.

"It was a lot of money to try to put in a program every year," she said. "We wanted to put a wellness center up where people can go to exercise."

When complete - probably sometime in summer 2010 - she hopes the indoor convenience of the center will offer an incentive for McCamey residents to get more active. Gulihur said many citizens currently walk around the track at the town's high school's football stadium, but they usually only do so when the weather permits and only during early morning and late afternoon hours.

"With this being indoor, it'll be level, out of the wind," she said. "They can walk anytime they want to."

If nothing else, Gulihur said, the new facility will be a part of a more comprehensive and proactive approach to the town's health.

"Wellness is the main concern of any good medical program," she said. "You're much better off keeping people healthy than treating them when they get sick."

"Let's face it, if you're going to walk around the track, you're not going to be smoking," she added.

McCamey Mayor Sherry Phillips said another benefit of the center is population-oriented.

The town, which she said has a "pretty good older population," will be better able to provide exercise opportunities for aging citizens who otherwise might have to move to larger towns with more resources to offer.

The town already offers many effective programs for the elderly, Phillips said, but their options for staying fit have been regrettably lacking.

The center will change that.

"It might even help draw some people to our community," the mayor said. "It's going to be a state-of-the-art facility for such a small community."

In another bit of good news for McCamey residents, the town received a $65,000 grant from Keep Texas Beautiful to go toward general beautification projects in various areas.

"We're just enjoying a little gravy these days," Phillips said.

A $65,000 grant may not seem like much to city slickers in Odessa and Midland, she said, but in a place like McCamey that sort of dough could go a long way.

"In a little town like McCamey, that's going to make a difference," Phillips laughed. "Now we're just going to have to sit down and argue about how to spend it."

THE WELLNESS CENTER

>> What: New McCamey Hospital District Wellness Center.

>> Where: 2500 Highway 305 South in McCamey.

>> When: Groundbreaking tentatively scheduled for July.

>> Estimate cost: Approximately $2.5 million.

>> Size: About 11,000 square feet.

AMENITIES

>> Two-lane indoor track.

>> Indoor pool.

>> Multipurpose program room.

>> Gym facility with treadmills, exercise bikes, etc.