Damon Hicks is known around the community for being the head coach of Lindsey Wilson College’s cheer and dance teams. He is also known for his business, Damon’s CTA Gymnastics, which he mostly operates out of the Jim Blair Center.
During peak season, it is not uncommon for Hicks to be coaching 65 to 90 children through his business. He has worked with children across the county and surrounding areas, coaching students from Russell County, Campbellsville, Green County, and more, and has been instrumental in securing many of these students with scholarships through their athletics.
In the nearly 13 years he has been at the Jim Blair Center, Hicks says his rental rate has only been raised once. The price increased from $500 to $600 early on and has not been touched since.
Until this year.
The Sept. 24 fiscal court meeting brought the latest of several conversations by the court about raising Hicks’ rent. The parks and recreation committee, made up of magistrates Mark Humphress and Billy Coffey, had proposed a steep hike on Hicks’ rent several months ago.
The new price would be $1,500 per month—a 150 percent increase over the $600 a month Hicks had been paying to use the Blair facility for specific hours every week.
“I don’t know how they came up with that number. They just came up with that number… There was no negotiation,” Hicks said. “You can raise the rent. I’ve never argued about raising the rent, but you raised the rent 150 percent. $900. Two and a half times what I pay right now? There’s no justification for that.”
Ultimately, the court voted in favor of the increase. Terry Hadley was the only magistrate to vote against it. Judge Executive Larry Russell Bryant also voiced his dissent with the decision.
The vote itself came after originally being slated for a vote in June. It was shelved with the promise that someone would meet with Hicks and come to an agreement.
Hicks said he would have been understanding of an increase had there been a notice ahead of time.
“I said this at the last meeting. I said this in June. Go up 25 percent or 30 percent right now. Go up to $800. Then we negotiate in the next year or two years and go up some more. That would have been fine. But there was no warning.”
The stated reason for the increase is that Hicks runs a business out of the facility and the receives a steep discount.
Magistrate Mark Humphress says that the current rate Hicks pays – a little over $8 an hour – is unfair to taxpayers as Hicks is operating a for-profit business out of the facility. The facility is normally rented hourly at $25 an hour.
Humphress said during a telephone interview this week that a gymnastics instructor wants to rent the facility and is willing to pay the full rate.
“It’s nothing against the kids,” Humphress said. “I went out there and tried talking to him out at the park and it didn’t do no good.”
Where Hicks fails to see the validity in this reasoning, however, is that he has been using the Jim Blair Center for over a decade without a request to increase his rent. He is being punished because they didn’t raise his rent over all the years he has been there.
“They asked me, ‘How many times have you raised your tuition?’ In the 12 years I’ve been in (the Jim Blair Center), or the 20 years I’ve been in town, I raised tuition once by $10,” Hicks said, referring to the decision to raise the prices of his classes from $45 for those six and up to $55. Though, he acknowledged this new rent increase may force him to raise prices again, something he does not want to do as many of his clients already make sacrifices to take their children to his classes—often driving as far away as Hart County or Glasgow several times per week.
“As far as my business is concerned, it’s been a stress because I’m trying to figure out if I can keep my business open or if I have to stop it until I can get a building built so I can continue doing my business. That has been a strain,” Hicks said. “The parents who did know (about the price increase) were trying to figure out… if we can continue to train so we can compete starting in January. What I have gotten out of this is… I have worked with a lot of people’s kids and in turn they have worked with my kid. There was a lot of support. I’m happy about that. I’m just not happy with what (the fiscal court) is putting them through,” Hicks said.
The $1,500 rent will go into effect on Nov. 1, a few short months from when national competitions for Hicks’ students begin in January.
By Kenley Godby
kenley@adairvoice.com
