The Tribune

By YOURI KEMP

Tribune Business Reporter

ykemp@tribunemedia.net

A Bahamian gym owner yesterday branded the Government’s seeming indifference to his and the wider sector’s plight as “unsettling” as a competitor switched their focus to other ventures.

Dr Kent Bazard, owner/operator of Empire Fitness, questioned why the sector remained closed while industries where customers are in even closer proximity have been allowed to open by the Government.

“We’re taking everything one day at a time, one week at a time. My bills are still piling up and there is no word from the Competent Authority or any kind of reprieve,” he said. Despite being provided with some relief by his landlord, Dr Bazard said Bahamas Power & Light (BPL) and other vendors/creditors are not giving him a break.

He also queried why jitneys, with passengers and the bus drivers sat close together, have been allowed to resume services amid COVID-19 but gyms and fitness centres have not. This, Mr Bazard said, was despite gyms having the ability to control who comes into their facilities and the distance they and others must be apart.

Branding communication between the gym owners and the Competent Authority (Prime Minister’s Office) as abysmal, he said: “It’s just wild situation, and there just doesn’t seem to be any plan. If there is a plan, nobody’s letting us in on it.

“So all this uncertainty is just..... it’s very unsettling. The lack of concern is very unsettling. This is not the way you treat a tax paying business owner. This is not the way you treat a Bahamian tax paying business. There’s just no excuse for it.”

Meanwhile Jennifer Godet, owner of J-Line Fitness Bahamas, told Tribune Business: “I’m looking forward to my next phase, and that’s opening a bar and grill. So I’m just spending my time doing that. So when I’m ready to open my bar and grill, the gym will be open probably some time next year. I’m just focusing on other things. I’m good.”

Ms Godet said she does not expect J-Line to re-open before year-end 2020. December, she added, is usually the “least attended time for the gyms” and she does not expect many clients if the Government does give the go-ahead.

Asked if she would re-open before year-end should the Government allow, Ms Godet said: “I would, but only because I’m an open air gym. I don’t see how gyms that have to air condition 10,000 square feet of interior; I don’t see how they can make it if they have to run air conditioning from 5am until 9pm with 10,000 square feet that they have to cool.

“It’s just not feasible for them. But I’m an open air gym. I don’t have that overhead, so I could do it. So if he [the Prime Minister] relaxes, I would be open in December, but I don’t I don’t expect many members though.”

Agreeing with Ms Godet that December is the softest period for gyms, Dr Bazard said “he has no choice” but to open if the Prime Minister gives permission. “I’ve done a whole lot of research,” he added.

“You know, I can call up and down about the international requirements and what are the risks of contamination and all of that stuff, and I have found that most of us are within the required measures for safe operation.”

Dr Bazard said he found persons at the greatest risk of contamination are those who sit face-to-face at restaurants less than six feet apart. “The way we have managed this thing, we’ve caused many bottlenecks and people to congregate,” he added.