JONESPORT — A new fitness center will be opened by Linda Church at 9 a.m. Tuesday, Nov. 1, in the basement of the new Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints.

“It’s kind of a gamble on my part,” she said Monday in a telephone interview at her home on Rosemary Lane.

Because she was interested in controlling her own weight and had some fitness equipment, she was recently invited by representatives of the church to create a fitness center in the church’s spacious basement that also houses a recreation center featuring bowling and billiards.

“Because they have wanted the church to be open to the community, they thought a fitness center would be something people might want to participate in,” said Church. “It may be the only fitness center between Lubec and Ellsworth.”

Ruby Albee operates an aerobics center at the Rose Gaffney School gym in Machias, but the Machias Fitness Center has been closed for several months.

Church’s new fitness center will be open five days a week, 9 a.m. to noon and from 3 to 8 p.m. “I’ll probably close a little earlier on nights when the basketball team has home games,” she said. Memberships will be $30 monthly for adults and $20 for students and senior citizens.