As the clock neared midnight Wednesday, a patient but angry Joel Prescott of Thunder Hill rose after waiting four hours to tell the Columbia Association board of directors exactly what he thinks of plans to eliminate free towels from the three association gyms.
"I want my towels back," the tall, fit-looking Prescott said with some force.
"It makes sense - sanitation common sense. For goodness' sakes, people, I've never heard anything so absurd." Prescott said he visited the private, for-profit LifeTime Fitness in east Columbia on Tuesday for the first time, where gym towels continue to be free with membership.
"You have to step out of this bubble," he told the nine board members attending the budget hearing. Cutting the money for towels without telling the residents was an outrage, he said, and if the association's leaders don't listen to patrons, they will be the losers.
"Ask General Motors about this," he said, referring to the once-dominant car company rescued from oblivion last year by the taxpayers.
The association staff hopes to save $5 million over a decade by not supplying the free towels. The board is to vote next month on the $59.3 million fiscal 2011 budget. Though the towels aren't due to disappear until Nov. 1, to allow time to "educate" gym patrons.
Prescott was the most emphatic critic of the idea, but he wasn't alone. While a few CA advisory committee members said they wouldn't mind bringing their own towels, representatives of seven of Columbia's 10 villages opposed the idea, as did several other speakers.
Carlton Haywood, chair of the Sports and Fitness Advisory Committee, said seven of the 10 members present voted unanimously to endorse the towel removal, though members of other CA sports committees strongly objected.
"I don't personally feel it's that great a burden for me to provide my own towel. It wasn't that big a deal," he said. Tennis committee chair Bob Berlett Sr. agreed. There are no towels offered at CA tennis facilities, he said.
"Tennis players usually bypass all the exercise equipment anyway," he added.
Ben Clements of the golf committee was also on board. "It doesn't bother me to use my own towel," he said. Golfers are much more interested in having a new clubhouse at Hobbits Glen Golf Course.
Other budget items were also higher priorities than towels for some.
Abby Hendrix of Oakland Mills wants the board to restore $25,000 to the budget to save the half-time community organizer residents feel is essential to the village's revitalization.
"It is such an asset to our community," she said, describing how Dorita Forehand, the organizer, has helped bring rootless teens she encounters on the street into the mainstream of neighborhood life. The organizer job began six years ago and became part-time last year.
Forehand, hired in September, won praise from a number of residents, business owners and from Oakland Mills High principal Frank Eastham, who spoke for all the village's schools.
But Wilde Lake board member Philip Kirsch objected, still irritated that Oakland Mills refused to share the full-time job with his village two years ago. To provide an organizer for every village would cost $500,000 he said.
Another group came to push for a full-time watershed manager, now that the association approved a watershed management plan. Each speaker who advocated for the job was backed by a round of applause from the audience. Others praised CA president Phil Nelson's plan to spend $350,000 to create a community service bureau to help villages plan their futures and coordinate with construction of a new downtown and the board-approved plans for a Symphony Woods makeover.
But the towel issue resurfaced.
Miles Coffman, a former board member who spoke for the Hickory Ridge Village Board, warned CA gyms would lose members and their membership dues if the towels go.
"A number of us like to sweat," he said, to chuckles. "You've got a hygiene issue." Many patrons use the towels to wipe others' sweat from machines and benches.
Karen Hitcho of Long Reach suggested using green products to clean the towels might help. Another speaker said doling them out one by one would cut expenses instead of allowing patrons to take as many as they want from a pile.
Rafia P. Siddiqui, CA's chief financial officer, has said the nonprofit association buys 42,000 towels a year, and uses 5,500 gallons of detergent, 3,500 gallons of bleach, 4.5 million gallons of water, 74,000 kilowatts of electricity and 231,000 therms of natural gas, plus hours of staff time washing, cleaning and folding.
But Frank Salatel of River Hill's village board said the towels aren't free.
"It's part of the dues," he said, and taking them away merely "substitutes residents' expense for CA expense."
"It's integral and improves the health club. Members expect it," added Nancy Alexander, the Wilde Lake Village Board chair.
"It's a personal service taken away," said Chadi Groome, representing CA's Health and Fitness Committee. Her group backed towel removal on a close 4-3 vote, she said.
"It's a controversial issue."
Kirsch said he's received lots of e-mails on the towel issue, and they all had one point of view.
"I haven't gotten any from people who like the idea," he said.