Lincoln Park police shut down gym, ticket guests
Owner is also cited for failure to obey governor’s order
JC Reindl
A metro Detroit gym was shut down Wednesday for violating Gov. Gretchen Whitmer’s pandemic-related executive orders and police gave citations to about a dozen members.
The case involving RTB Gym in Lincoln Park is one of the first in Michigan in which authorities ticketed not only an owner or manager of a gym for defying the governor, but all patrons who happened to be inside when officers arrived.
“We wanted to make sure that they took this seriously,” said Mayor Thomas Karnes of Lincoln Park, where the now-shuttered gym is located.
“You can’t have someone basically flouting the laws and opening in violation of what the governor says you can’t do.”
Thomas Karnes “You can’t have someone basically flouting the laws and opening in violation of what the governor says you can’t do.”
Lincoln Park police entered RTB Gym, 2146 Fort St., about 12:45 p.m. and, along with a city building inspector, told everyone to leave the building and handed citations to two gym employees and the roughly 12 members who were working out, according to gym owner Tino Ulicne, who was later cited by police as well.
The building inspector ordered the gym
closed and posted bright orange “DO NOT OCCUPY” signs at its entrances.
Ulicne said that he and everyone else are due to appear July 30 in 25th District Court in Lincoln Park to answer to the citations.
“We all got violation of the governor’s orders,” he said. “The officers said they’re not sure on how we’re going to be punished. They don’t know what the fines are going to come out to, but I do believe it’s a misdemeanor.”
RTB Gym is one of an unknown number of fitness centers across lower Michigan that have remained open for business despite Whitmer’s executive order for them to stay closed indefinitely because of the coronavirus pandemic. The governor lifted the order June 10 for gyms in northern Michigan and the Upper Peninsula, which had seen fewer coronavirus cases.
Ulicne said his gym followed the closure order until June 25. That day was once planned as the first day that gyms could legally reopen after a judge ordered an end to Whitmer’s closure after the filing of a federal lawsuit brought by a group of independent gym owners and trainers.
But an 11th-hour ruling by the U.S. 6th Circuit Court of Appeals scuttled those plans by delaying implementation of the lower court’s decision. That kept the governor’s order in place while the appeals court ponders the matter.
Enforcement of the criminal penalties in the closure order is up to local police and county prosecutors.
Ulicne said the gym is his livelihood and he tried to keep it open out of financial necessity, although with social-distancing rules and added spacing between the equipment. The building is a former Powerhouse gym, which he bought and rebranded in 2018.
“This is my bread and butter,” he said. Karnes, a former police chief, said he and Lincoln Park City Council members learned that RTB Gym was open in defiance of Whitmer’s order from a citizen during Monday night’s council meeting.
RTB Gym was given a warning on Tuesday, and a manager there voluntarily closed the business, Karnes said.
City officials took further steps Wednesday upon discovering that the gym had reopened.
“If you don’t comply, there are ramifications,” the mayor said.
Ulicne said he was surprised that Lincoln Park took the actions it did. He noted how not all cities are going after gyms that remain open.
“I have competitors open, and they get a slap on the wrist,” he said. “They get a $500 fine, a $1,000 fine. They pay it, they’re open the next day. We come in, we get a warning. I expected to get a fine the next day and pay it and do the same thing, but we get everyone ticketed.”
No one
Department comment. at the Lincoln Park Police returned messages seeking
Contact JC Reindlat 313-222-6631 or jcreindl@freepress.com. Follow him on Twitter @jcreindl. Read more on business and sign up for our business newsletter.