IN THE CITY: Womble working out as YMCA volunteer

LIMA - The exercise equipment at the Lima Family YMCA gets, pun intended, a workout.

The man who keeps the bikes, weight circuit and elliptical machines in, pun also intended, good shape, does it for free.

Carlos Womble, 69, joined the YMCA 11 years ago when he retired from Westinghouse Sundstrand, looking for something to keep active and out of his wife's hair.

"I wasn't ready to sit at home and my wife, Carole, wasn't ready for me to do that either," Womble said.

He joined the old Y and began his care of the equipment in a small way. By the time the current Y was built and the equipment became more complicated, Womble had stepped up and was fixing things regularly when they needed it.

The YMCA sent Womble for training from the companies providing the equipment, Vice President Terri Averesch said, and since then he has saved the Y $20,000 a year by maintaining the equipment.

"He's so valuable to us, and we love to have him around," Averesch said. "He's taken ownership of the equipment and we appreciate him."

Womble is in the building six days a week, first for his own workout, always chatting with friends and then working on the equipment. He's instituted a preventative maintenance program for the machines to protect against his two enemies, dirt and sweat.

When he sees someone around town he knows is a member who may have fallen off their exercise routine, he urges them back in. Averesch calls Womble a "YMCA ambassador."

"I enjoy the people," Womble said about his time with the organization. "Probably about half the people I see, I know well enough to say ‘Hi' to and a quarter to really talk to."

While Womble can take apart and put back together every piece of exercise equipment at the upstairs wellness center, there's one thing he won't touch - the new TV screens attached to the machines.

"If you have a problem with the TVs, don't call me," Womble said, laughing. "I'll do what I'd do at home: call a repairman."