Anytime Fitness Selah Gets Whopping $9K Fine Over COVID Violation

Yikes!

I just read on KIMATV.com that Anytime Fitness gym in Selah got fined nearly $10,000 by the state of Washington because they were operating a business under the Safe Start order.

What is the Safe Start order? In a nutshell, it means that a county has to be in at least Phase 2 to be open for business or face stiff penalties by the state.

According to coronavirus.wa.gov website, Yakima County is still in Phase 1 (along with Benton and Franklin counties). Only essential businesses and a few select others are allowed to be open right now.

Workout gyms are not on this list.

According to the report, at least 13 complaints against Anytime Fitness being opened were filed and the Yakima Health District gave them the warning to cease operation.

Accordingly, the gym in fact did not close down despite the warning. State Labor Inspectors paid Anytime Fitness a visit on June 15th of this year to see for themselves what was going on in the gym and they saw that it was operating in full swing.

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The owners of the gym, Bradshaw Development Inc. on Summitview Ave in Yakima, were given a fine of $9,639.

Anytime Fitness in Selah is now the first Washington state business to be fined under the Safe Start order, and KIMA also noted that the gym "allowed customers to work out [in the gym] without requiring social distancing, [and were] selling new memberships, and posting on social media that [they were] open."

I tell you what! I currently have a gym membership at a private club in Yakima, but I am not sure that I would dare venture out there, even if they WERE open right now. I am a hypochondriac by nature, so I probably will not rush off to the gym until Yakima County is at least in Phase 3. I miss my gym's hot tub and steam room so much I could cry.

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