By Steve Kemme
The Cincinnati Enquirer

GLENDALE - An agreement between the village and the Queen City Racquet & Fitness Club will enable Glendale residents and employees to join the club at discounted rates.

This arrangement provides a much less costly way for Glendale, which has 2,200 residents, to provide recreation opportunities than by building its own fitness center.

"We're small," Mayor Thomas Todd said. "Building a fitness club would cost about $5 million, which we can't afford."

The reduced rates will kick in on April 1 for the 140 current Glendale members and for the new ones. The discount will be determined on a sliding scale based on how many new Glendale members join the club, which is on Chester Road and straddles Glendale and Sharonville.

The largest discount will occur when the number of new Glendale members reaches 100. At that point, the full family membership will be $45 per month, $44 below the normal cost, and the full individual membership will be $25 per month, $34 below the normal fee.

The rates will be available for village residents and employees and members of the Glendale Chamber of Commerce. An anonymous Glendale donor's gift of $5,000 to the fitness club helped achieve the lower membership rates.

Besides a fitness center, the Queen City Racquet & Fitness Club's amenities include indoor and outdoor tennis, racquetball, squash and wallyball, a gymnasium, a heated outdoor pool and an off-site indoor pool.

Bill Lofgren, general manager of the Queen City Racquet & Fitness Club, said his club and Glendale benefit from this arrangement.

"We're getting 100 new members," he said. "We're hoping their children will be on the swim team, take tennis lessons from our pros and be in our tennis leagues."

E-mail skemme@enquirer.com