TOWNSHEND — Coming soon to a West River Valley location is Anita's Body Shop, a women's exercise studio that has been several years in the making.
Anita Bean, Townshend's town clerk for six years, said the machines are on the way, and that banking, computer systems and music are being worked out and permits are being obtained.
She said a recent visit to her bookkeeper made it clear that running a small business is a tough proposition, but says she's in it for keeps. “They tax everything – it's like 33 percent,” she said.
The studio site is 1068 Grafton Road (Route 35, just south of the Townshend town garage), the former Janos Technology building. Janos made optical lenses there until the company moved to Keene, N.H., more than 20 years ago, according to Bean. She had explored opening a studio there some time ago but was foiled by the complexities of the building's ownership.
The current owner, lawyer Robert Dowd of Woodside Joint Venture, a Texas company, acquired the 23,000 square-foot building in a foreclosure action; Bean is renting the renovated 2,100 square-foot front section of the warehouse.
“Originally I got the idea to have a studio nine years ago,” Bean said. “I was going to Curves in Ludlow and I loved it and I wanted to do a Curves franchise. I did a lot of leg work and exploring but Curves said, with franchises in Bellows Falls and Brattleboro, the population didn't warrant another one.”
Nevertheless, the idea was firmly planted in Bean's head and the club she's opening, probably in mid-July, is based on the Curves system. Curves, as the punning name implies, employs a 30-minute circle workout system with machines that target the usual body parts and cardio-vascular systems of women. According to Curves' Web site, the company first opened in 1992 and was first franchised in 1995. They now list more than 10,000 franchises in 70 countries with four million-plus members.
Meanwhile, a friend of her daughter's opened a Curves-like studio out of state and Bean thought the Pace Hydraulic Circuit equipment she used was better than the Curves system.
Bean's eight Pace machines are due to arrive in Townshend on June 2, and she says her family and others will help to set up the circuit system with eight machines and eight recovery stations. The club will be air-conditioned and include a bathroom, two changing rooms and cubicles for personal belongings. Memberships will cost $45 monthly or $40 if certain blocks of time are purchased. There will be a one-time sign-up fee of $149.99 but with many special offers to ameliorate that fee, she said.
Bean reported when she started awhile ago to organize a club, she'd gathered 160 signatures of women who were interested. She doesn't envision gaining such a large membership right away but hopes to build a solid group.
As for it's being a women-only club, she said, “I've just always wanted to have a women-only place” and she hopes it will also serve as a social networking site. But, she added, there's nothing to stop men from opening up a place, maybe upstairs.
A 14-year Townshend resident, Bean is married to Randy, a custodian at Leland and Gray Union High School; their three grown children live in Massachusetts.
Bean said she will open on July 12; and be open weekdays from 6:30 a.m. to 6:30 p.m. and Saturdays from 8 to 11 a.m. She'll hold an open house on July 10, from 1 to 4 p.m. For more information, call her 802-365-7332.