At the risk of stating the obvious, there are two sides to every story.

When heartbroken members of Edward-Elmhurst Health and Fitness Center complained to me about the proposed closure of the 35-year-old facility, it was easy to empathize. I may be a “January only” gym member myself, but I understand it’s a place where friendships are made.

Edward-Elmhurst Health & Fitness Center on Brom Court is even more special because it is used by many residents who are elderly and disabled and for whom a regular gym isn’t possible. As the first medically-based fitness center in DuPage County, it’s been a fixture in the community since 1988 that will be closing its doors for good on April 1 to make way for new medical facilities.

Members are furious, and many have shared their stories in our pages since news broke on March 10. I could add to that list former teacher Michelle Pelc, who has been rehabilitating at the fitness center since she had a stroke at the age of 40, 13 years ago.

“Finding out about the closure was like a death,” she told me. “I went from being angry to just crying about it.”

As if the closure wasn’t bad enough, the way members found out was, quite frankly, a mess. Some were emailed, others received letters. But for many, the first they heard about it was either on social media or when they arrived at the facility to find notices posted on the doors.

Steve Shamrock, whose wife is a member of the Naperville Waves swim club, which meets at the center, told me: “If it wasn’t so sad it would be comical. The way they are doing it contradicts their mission values. No one knew before they saw the notice. It was huge surprise to employees and members.”

Edward-Elmhurst Health thought they had a good solution, which seems to have backfired on them. They urged Naperville members to come over to their fitness center at Seven Bridges in Woodridge. It’s only a 15-minute drive away and more modern.

However, it may as well be in another state for some of its oldest members, who live in the Martin Avenue apartments next to the Naperville site and cannot drive.

There’s been much anger hurled at the hospital, and its easy to see why. We all believe the medical industry has money to burn, so why can’t they just change their minds now that they see how much they’ve upset everyone? But as I said, there’s two sides to every story.

I put some of the complaints to Joe Dant, president of South Region Northshore-Edward-Elmhurst Health, and Bridget McLemore, system vice president of operations for Edward-Elmhurst Health. They were fully aware of how people have reacted and were keen to present their side of the story.

“It was a very, very, difficult decision because there a lot of longtime members,” Dant told me. “The fact is our membership has been decreasing because of the pandemic. People have found lots of other options. We asked ourselves, how do we keep funding two fitness centers in a competitive space? We needed to consolidate. We picked Seven Bridges because we are land locked in Naperville and that prevents our ability to provide (new) facilities to our campus.”

Although no final decision has been made, the fitness club building could be replaced with an ambulatory surgery center that would cost patients less than the main hospital, more office space for doctors to see patients while on campus or an expansion of oncology services.

McLemore says consolidating the fitness center will help them to continue to provide fitness facilities in a medical setting.

Dant, the man who is making these decisions, admits the way members found out wasn’t perfect.

“We worked on the plan for quite some time. We tried emails, phone calls, social media, a variety of ways, but we weren’t perfect with that,” he said. While a few members have suggested a compromise could have been reached with more notice, Dant doesn’t think it would have ultimately made a difference.

McLemore said the situation was complex because they knew it would affect staff too. Although some of them will transfer to Seven Bridges, some will lose their jobs, she admitted. She wouldn’t say how many.

Dant says the reality is for a long time, the health care portion of the business has been supporting the fitness center, which has been running at a loss.

“We need our resources for our mission in healing,” he said. “A lot of people have misperceptions about Edward-Elmhurst Health but that is not the reality we face, especially after three years of a pandemic. There are workforce shortages and inflation in costs. This was something we couldn’t have anticipated. The notion that we are wealthy is not the case.”

I felt Dant and McLemore put their case well, yet somehow it didn’t really help those elderly and disabled members who cannot get to Seven Bridges. I wondered if there was any way they could help with transport.

“We do run a medical van service in Elmhurst, we could consider that if people supported it,” Dant said. “What I would say is the same dedication our staff demonstrated in Naperville exists in Seven Bridges. The fact is people trusted us for decades. Don’t give up on us because we had to make a difficult decision. The same kindness you’ve had for years here will still be there.”

Hilary Decent is a freelance journalist who moved to Naperville from England in 2007.

hilarydecent@gmail.com