2 - Morrisville and Preston Progress, Thursday, March 27,1997 New center takes members’ Rep. Mosley fUes bill fot library funding health, fitness to heart Continued from page 1 set up individual exercise routines for members. The mens and ladies locker rooms will feature steam rooms. "Everything is going to be top of the line,” Stewart said, as he con ducted a tour of the new facility. "We have the right equipment, and the right people to do the job." The new flmess center overlooks three pools which are still under construction. On the left side of the building, a Mediterranean-style restaurant features an open kitchen so that members can watch their food being prepared; a screened-in porch and patio with 48 seats over looks the driving range, A snack bar window opens out to the pool area. Instead of 200 seats at the old pool, there will be 700 when the new complex opens in May. It will feature a recreational pool with a large water slide, a tot play area with jets, bubblers and water sprayers, and an eight-lane competition pool where lessons, swim team practices and water aerobics classes will be held. When no programs are held there, use will be limited to adults. Stewart got involved with the fit ness and aquatics programs after serving as food services manager for Preston wood for six years. Last year he served as acting aquatics director and acting athletic director, and held the informal title of con struction supervisor. Stewart and his wife decided to leave their faster paced life in Washington, D.C. and come to North Carolina, partly to be nearer his wife’s family in South Carolina. Stewart attended college at Wil liam and Mary in Virginia and worked in taverns in Colonial Wil liamsburg during those days. Arriv- Tending peach orchid hard work Continued from page 1 stings, spider bites and .snakes hanging out of the trees!" he added. Nature isn’t necessarily the or chard’s worst enemy. "Sometimes strangers will just walk into the or chard and help themselves! To them, I say, ‘Either put them down, or pay five dollars a piece for them!’ I wouldn’t mind giving a couple of peaches to a person if they asked, but just helping them selves isn’t the way to get anything from me!" ing in the Raleigh area with no job prospects, Stewart answered an ad for the job in the Prestonwood kitchen to get him started while he thought about what he wanted to do. He had been a Systems Analyst with ATP Corp. in D.C. for two years where he designed and tested software for the airline industry. He soon j-ealized, "I’m more of a people person than a machine per son. I knew everybody in every cubicle there." Working for Prestonwood, "there’s a gratification you get from pleasing people...if they had a nice dinner or enjoyed their day at the pool," Stewart said. His degree was in international relations, a fitting subject for the son of a U.S. Foreign Services dip lomat. Stewart grew up in Central and South America, attended high school in Copenhagen and visited Australia often during his college years. Besides balancing long hours at the country club with home life - wife, Julie, and son, Alec, 16 months - he is working on his club manager certification. He studies areas such as turf maintenance, aquatics, government regulations, including OSHA standards, and food and beverage regulations. "You have to keep up with the changes," he said. He also en courages his employees, from the fimess director to the aquatics directcff to the chef, to join their trade organizations. He will oversee a staff of 35, and is still looking to hire a few more wait staff, cooks and aquatics pro gram staff. "We offer great bene fits," he said, including free meals, and golf on Mondays. TP- r%MoTavltAPr«Man I he rroqress Offices located at 616 West Chatham Street P.O. 80x1539 Apex, NC 27502 Phone; (919) 362-8356 • Fax: (919) 362-1369 Ann Kirkland Publisher Suzette Rodriguez Executive Editor Published monthly by the KNI Newspaper Network. Bulk permit postage paid at Morrisville, NC 27560. POSTMASTER; Send address changes to The Morrisville & Preston Progress, P.O. Box 1539, Apex, NC 27502. 301 S. Main Market • Fuquay-Varina • 552-3742 jiflP^PilJP^OPEN FOR LUNCH^ lliBi^^Sa^^Monday - Friday “This is our life...every morning we prepare fresh veggies, meats, cheeses, soups and salads for your enjoyment.” The DELI BOX Famous for the best in food and entertainment since 1976. 10800 Chapel Hill Rd. • Morrisville - 467-4163 • FAX 467-4164 Carpenter ^ Farm Supply Co. t Your Spring Gardening Headquarters! Bulk Seed Weighed To Order CSEFEHTER rsiM sirriv co. 919-467-1.511 1933 Morrisvilie-Carpenter Rd. Airport Exit Hwy. 55. Morrisville Cofrtinued from page 1 thousand dollars won’t build one and run one. We need to have mere to work with than a $25,000 ap propriation. That won’t get you much. We’ve got to have some commitments from some other areas," referring to Wake County Library System participation. The chamber had requested the "bookmobile” mobile library from the county library system about two years ago. "We asked if it would stop a few limes a week, either at the Morris ville Elementary School or the town hall, so that people wouldn’t have to drive so far to a library," Lech said. At the time, there was no money in the county coffers to do that, and the bookmobiles were needed in the inner city. "We didn’t get very far, other than that they said when monies were available, they would reconsider," Lech said. "I absolutely support the idea of a local library," said Commissioner Mark Silver-Smith. "We need it so the older folks in the community would be able to walk to it. We have an older community that can not get in a car and drive to Apex." Mayor Margaret Broadwell sug gested that the library could either be housed in the existing police sta tion building, after the new build ing near town hall is completed around August, or in the former town hall building if the chamber moved to another building. The chamber of commerce is using half of the building, which originally housed the Morrisville Christian Church. The other half of the building has been condemned. Commissioners disagree on whether to renovate the budding for its' historical value or knock it down and build something else on the site. Town Manager David Hodgkins said he has checked with in spectors. "A total rebuild of the for mer town hall would be an astronomical amount of money," he said, although the historical value of the building is significant. Commissioner Leavy Barbee said, "We need to keep a few older places here to represent Morris ville." He referred to the "nostal gia" of the building. Commissioner Phyllis Newnam said it would be better to destroy the building and build a new building on the site. Lech said the building is a wooden building and might not provide fire protection for library books as well as the cinder-block police station building. "We could use the police station building temporarily," Lech said, "until monies would be available to build either a new facility or space to be found in some other building. "I don’t know what we would use the $25,000 for, if it would be used for a part-time librarian or for book acquisition," Lech added. Mayor Broadwell said that al though the space in the police sta tion building is small, the library could hook up with the county li brary system through computers, and people could reserve books and do research with computers. "That would be a more usable way for the space. But all of this is just dreaming at this point," she said. She suggested having newspapers and magazines and basic research books in the facility, and the ability to reserve books and pick them up a day or two later ^'ter couriers bring them from other facilities. Sauls disagrees with the idea. "I really see having to use that build ing at least for a while for staff, un til we can build an annex to the town hall. We have an engineer now that’s crammed in a closet. We don’t have any room down there for the professional people they need." He added, "There’s virtually no parking there. At such time as we are able to do it, it will need to be a nice facility. And we are going to have to have county participation." Moore of the library system said, "We have plans eventually for a li brary in Morrisville in our long- range capital improvement plan. We have not set a date on that. It could be a long way down the road. I don’t know how this would help or hinder that." The bill, House Bill 383, has been referred to the Appropriations Committee. The money, if ap proved, would be awarded July 1. "I’ll just push it all I can, because it’s an educational need," Ms. Mosely said. "It’s something the entire town and area of Morrisville can use, to enhance education, to have somewhere to go." Ms. Mosely acknowledged that the seed money would not produce a library. "But maybe the town could get more money from library board. This is at least a beginning," she said. Skunk race new event at Park Day Continued from page 1 Catalinas will be on the main stage, followed by Don Cox from 4 to 5:30 p.m. The Homeland Singers will entertain from 6 to 7:30 p.m., and The Platters will be on stage from 8 to 10 p.m. Tbe day is sponsored by Morris ville Parks and Recreation and Cul tural Resources, the United Arts Council of Wake County and Raleigh, Prestonwood Develop ment Company, Southern Ex hibitors, Sunbelt Rentals, Cotton Unlimited, Grassroots Arts Pro grams, Cadplus, Inc., Cary Lock and Key, EDS, and Budgetei Hotel. 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