THE EVERETT ADVOCATE – FRiDAy, MAy 16, 2025 Page 5 City HR Director answers councillors’ Wellness and Rec Center questions 8 Norwood St. Everett (617) 387-9810 Open Tues. - Sat. at 4:00 PM Closed Sun. & Mon. Announcing our Classic Specials Dine In Only: * FREE Salad with purchase of Entree, Tuesdays & Wednesdays * Cheese Pizza - Only $10 Children are shown at the Everett Recreation Center on Elm Street participating in some of the many programs offered to the city’s youth. (Courtesy photo) By Neil Zolot T he City of Everett will operate the Wellness Center at the old High School, 548 Broadway, in-house, Acting Human Resources Director and former Director of Youth Development and Enrichment John Russolillo told the City Council at their meeting on Monday, May 12. “The best idea is to run it inhouse given the staff we have in the Youth Development and Enrichment Department,” he said. “How the Youth Development and Enrichment budget has evolved is that not a lot of staff is being used at the Recreation Center, on Elm Street, and are in the schools. They’ll also be at the Wellness Center as well. We’ll also be using the Recreation Fund Revolving Account as revenue for the Wellness Center. I’m confident we’ll have enough staff and funding.” The idea is the result of only one unresponsive bidder answering a Request For Proposals (RFP) to run the Wellness Center. “We issued an RFP to bring in a provider, but only got one bidder,” Russolillo explained. “After we saw the bidder wasn’t responsive, we decided it was in our best interest to run it in-house. What we were getting for responses were proposals predicated on fitness class offerings, not operation of the Wellness Center. We’d like to explore the option of having companies come in and help with classes, but we feel we have the staff and funding to hire staff so the place is open. There will be opportunities for fitness classes to be offered through an RFP process or just an agreement where vendors offer classes as personal training separate from Wellness Center offerings.” He added that such vendors would be charged rent and additional fees based on class sizes, which would generate revenue for various revolving accounts. WELLNESS CENTER | SEE PAGE 6 Catch ALL The Live Sports Action On Our Large Screen TV’s Scan & Follow Us on Facebook! www.810bargrille.com Pictured, a Babson College entrepreneurship workshop held recently.
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