Three new businesses to open in Ridgewater complex
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POLSON — Three new businesses will soon be opening on Whitewater Drive in the Ridgewater complex.
The new fitness facility will offer “Fitness On Demand,” where members can dial up spinning, yoga, strength training or dance aerobics classes any time the facility is open, for a month-to-month fee of $39, with no contracts.
“A screen drops down, and the monitor projects the program,” explained Bob Norwood of Kern Regional Medical Center, who said they are looking to add live classes in the future in the group exercise room fitted with parquet floors and mirrors.
Polson Medical Fitness Center, owned by KRMC, is hoping to open mid-October in a building under construction on Whitewater Street, just north of their Polson Clinic in the Ridgewater complex.
The 6,000-square-foot fitness center will also offer free weights, select weights, treadmills, ellipticals, spin bikes and stationery bicycles plus a locker room with showers.
There’s no plans for a sauna or pool.
“There’s (a pool) up the road,” Norwood said, referring to Mission Valley Aquatic Center. Norwood said while competition is good, they’ve tried to be a good neighbor and not step on anyone’s toes.
Like their sister facility, The Summit in Kalispell, the Polson center may offer protein drinks and snacks and smoothies on site, using products from Hammer Nutrition of Whitefish.
“It’s a good product that’s medically based and sound,” Norwood said. “We use something that has medical evidence that works.”
The facility will be open weekdays from 6 a.m. to 10 p.m., Saturdays 7 a.m. to 9 p.m. and Sundays 7 a.m. to 7 p.m.
KRMC will hire three or four people, including personal trainers and desk staff with a knowledge of fitness. Interested individuals may apply online at the KRMC website under the employment section.
The facility is open to folks 16 years of age or older.
A $50 registration fee is required up front, and then a $39 monthly fee is set up on EFT payments directly from the members’ bank account.
Members may cancel at any time, but must pay the registration fee to reinstate their membership when they return. Monthly rate for a couple is $69.
The facility does not offer childcare, but the gymnastics facility coming next door to the fitness center is planning to offer open gym times so parents can drop their kids off while they work out, according to Head Over Heels owner Jessica Edwards.
Head Over Heels
Edwards won’t need to set up and take down all her tumbling and gymnastics equipment once her new gym opens on Whitewater Street. The new facility will include a 42-by-42 spring floor and a 6-foot deep concrete pit filled with foam for her 170 students plus anticipated newcomers.
“I have been really amazed how it all worked out,” Edwards said.
Although she’s taken the summer off from teaching to prepare the new facility, she’s taught in fellowship hall of Polson Alliance Church for quite a while, setting up and breaking down mats and bars and balance beams.
“But my gymnasts have gotten a lot more advanced,” she said, to a point where the temporary equipment doesn’t work. They need permanent equipment secured to the ground.
Edwards grew up in Polson and drove to Kalispell daily to train and compete in gymnastics. At age 17 she took out a micro business loan, bought mats, and started teaching in Ronan.
“That paid for snowboarding habit and gas money to go places,” she said of her teen years.
In the following 24 years she’s moved around the country, but returned to Polson seven years ago and began casually teaching to friends and relatives.
“Then it just exploded,” she said. For three years now she’s made it official as an LLC business under her current name, Head Over Heels, with “amazing instructors” helping her teach 35 classes a week to different age and skill levels.
Although she’s utilizing a crowd-funding website to fill the foam pit, Edwards is planning to resume classes at the new facility on Sept. 6, even if all aspects of construction are not complete. Head Over Heels offers gymnastics, cheerleading, tumbling, and will offer a variety of dance programs including ballet, hip hop, contemporary, jazz and tap.
Edwards hopes to start a competitive team in the future.
“I have (students) who are definitely ready for it, who are working at that level,” she said.
For more information on classes, birthday parties, open gym times or to donate to the foam pit, visit the website at www.headoverheelsmontana.com.
Copper Mountain Coffee
A third business on the east end of the new building on Whitewater Street will offer coffee beverages plus breakfast and lunch items via Street through, indoor seating or an outside deck.
Copper Mountain Coffee owner Robin Lyon once owned the UPS Store in Columbia Falls, but decided she wanted to run a business that was “more fun,” she said.
So she bought four coffee kiosks in Kalispell. The name has changed through the years. It was once named Outback Java Shack, but it wasn’t long before Outback restaurant approached her and wanted her to change the name so customers wouldn’t be confused.
“We don’t serve steaks,” she said, but offered to change the name if the mega-chain restaurant would pay for renaming and rebranding, which they did.
Now Copper Mountain Coffee has grown to five shops in Kalispell, one in Libby and two in Missoula. She’s opening the Polson shop by request, she said.
With the motto, “Serve others, keep it real, make if fun,” Lyon credits her success to her “super friendly” baristas, fast service, and the consistency of the products. “We are really striving to make sure everything tastes the same no matter where you go,” she said, explaining that their coffee drinks are made the old fashioned way, not by a press of a button.
She gets her beans from Dillanos Coffee Roasters in Washington.
“We use a medium roast that’s smooth, rich, and has a really good presence in your mouth,” Lyon said.
When the Polson location opens sometime in October, it will offer the largest seating area of any of her shops, with a 12-foot bar and tables to seat a total of 10-12 customers in rustic Montana ambiance with music playing indoors and outside. Copper Mountain Coffee got it’s name from the affiliation and friendship with Copper Mountain Band, a country/rock band from Troy of which the coffee company’s general manager and partner, Jacque Jolene, is the lead singer and songwriter.
Copper Mountain Coffee will be hiring for the Polson location. “We’ve already hired a manager for that location but need at least three or four more people,” Lyon said.
Employment applications can be found at coppermountaincoffee.com
