#MENTOR SENIOR CENTER: FITNESS AND EXERCISE EQUIPMENT—IT’S BETTER IN MENTOR

I took an informal poll of some of the  health-conscious men and women in the Senior Center exercise room to find out why they exercised.  Here are their answers, in no particular order:

I exercise because . . . I’m a heart patient, I’ve had heart bypass surgery, I’m recovering from an injury, diabetes and heart disease runs in my family, I want to keep up with my grandchildren, I like to, it’s good thinking time, it relaxes me, it peps me up, I want to stay alive, I need to strengthen my muscles, I want to maintain my health, I want to live longer, it boosts my metabolism and I can enjoy more food without gaining weight, it relieves joint pain, it keeps me limber and flexible, I’m older and I gotta, I think better afterwards,

I exercise to avoid . . . lupus, diabetes, becoming obese, having a heart attack, having a stroke

Of all the choices in Lake County, I prefer to work out at the Mentor Senior Center because . . . the location is convenient, I like working out with people in my age group, it has a laid-back atmosphere, there’s no loud music, it’s clean, the equipment’s well-maintained, people are friendly, people work out instead of socializing, everything at the Mentor Senior Center’s the best in the area, the equipment’s good, the staff is responsive to suggestions to improve the Fitness Room, the staff is caring, I feel comfortable here, it’s never crowded or noisy, people are considerate and polite,

Almost everyone mentioned cost as a factor.  The cost of using the room is part of the $5 annual fee Mentorites pay and the $7 others pay.

If that doesn’t bespeak a senior center, a city administration and a city council willing to subsidize the health and well being of its community, I don’t know what does.

There are 20 pieces of equipment in the Fitness Room, 7 of which are multipurpose.

My Take on the Fitness Room:  I’ve been working out for 40 years, but for only the last 2 months at the Senior Center.  What took me so long to get here????  (Besides coming of age, of course.)

Tomorrow:  5 Myths about Fitness Workouts

Mentor Senior Center    8484 Munson Rd     440 974-5725          Fitness Room available 7 AM to 9 PM, Monday-Thursday, 7 AM to 4:30 PM, Friday, Main Entrance and Center Street doors open.       (Only Main Entrance doors open at 7 AM, Monday-Friday, for access to Fitness Room) 

 Office hours  Monday-Thursday, 8 AM-7:30 PM,   Friday 8 AM-4:30 PM 

MENTOR’S #DEER POPULATION: STARVING

Deer grazing next to my deck

The Lake County Game Warden, who must autopsy deer he finds in yards or along sides of roads, reported to Mentor City Council earlier this year that a 4-year-old Whitetail Deer in Mentor weighs 50-60 pounds, while a 4-year-old Whitetail in Madison weighs 100-120 pounds.

Deer grazing at the edge of Santoli Pond

This deer wandered in with the one at the deck,  No sign of robust good health here, either.

In desperation, and much to the annoyance of gardeners, every year deer are eating plants they’ve never eaten in the past.  Unfortunately for the deer, they’re eating foods their digestive systems have never evolved to tolerate.

If the enzymes and bacteria needed to digest the food aren’t present, the food can’t pass through the four chambers of deer’s stomachs.  The result?  Well, imagine yourself trying to digest tree bark and not being able to regurgitate it.

Though I’m not capable of pulling the trigger or sending an arrow into these animals, I’m grateful to the men and women who will begin culling deer in Mentor later this year.

City council and administrators examined other courses of action and concluded culling was the only viable solution to the problem.

Currently, the only effective means of deer population control in Mentor are cars and trucks.

For reasons of cost and the unintended consequences of sterilization, sterilizing wild animals has been illegal in Ohio and in most states for decades.

We no longer have sufficient numbers of wolves, bears, bobcats, coyotes or cougars in the state to keep deer numbers in check.

The argument in defense of the deer’s right to be here because we destroyed their habitat isn’t valid.  In reality, what we destroyed was the deer’s predators’ habitat.

In 1970, there were 17,000 deer in the state of Ohio.  Today there are over 750,000.

That increase in the population didn’t happen because we destroyed the deer’s habitat.  It happened because deer keep on “doin’ what comes natcherly.”

No, I don’t have the chops to thin out the deer herd myself.

But neither do I have the chops to see these beautiful animals reduced to the sorry specimens we see daily in Mentor.

I thank our Mentor administrators and council members for their efforts over the last two years to institute a deer culling program.

It’s a bold step that will keep it Better in Mentor–for deer as well as for the rest of us.

    To view how deer are destroying our natural habitat, go to

http://mytakeontoday.wordpress.com/2012/01/26/mentors-deer-population-a-tale-of-3-natural-areas/