The state and county health departments shut down a Camden County gym that has been operating in defiance of Gov. Phil Murphy’s executive order. But the owners of Atilis Gym say that they plan to reopen Friday regardless.

Owners Ian Smith and Frank Trumbetti reopened the gym on Monday and have gotten three citations for being open. They planned to reopen on Thursday but found shut down notices posted on the business.

“We showed up to a notice on the windows. Notices of an embargo based on supposedly the coronavirus, and the Board of Health has left a notice,” Trumbetti says. “And in the middle of the night they left it, instead of actually coming here in person.”

Trumbetti says that a sewage backup temporarily closed the gym Wednesday night. But that backup was fixed and the gym was going to reopen Thursday morning. The gym remains closed while attorneys look into the notices.

 

“They cleaned up their verbiage, saying that what Gov. Murphy’s original executive order stated that everything had to be closed to the pubic IN this situation, they’ve actually changed the verbiage purposely and it came directly from Mr. Murphy that we are not allowed any members of the public in or members of our gym,” Trumbetti says.

Atilis’ owners say that they are taking all the proper precautions to protect gym members. They have just installed a biometric scanner as an alternative to an employee taking a member’s temperature.

“A person walks in, they take their temperature. It gives them almost an immediate reading of what their temperature is," says Jason Green, of Medic Air Solutions.

And while the notices say that the gym has to close until further notice, the owners say that they will reopen on Friday.

“We will be allowing 44 people in at a time on an hour and a half schedule. They will be allowed to work out for an hour and 15 minutes and after that, we will take 15 minutes to actually re-disinfect the whole entire gym and then the next 44 people will go in,” Trumbetti says.

When asked what it would take to shut down the gym permanently, Trumbetti replied, “To be behind bars. That simple.”

Police were called to the gym’s parking lot Thursday morning for a person harassing the owners. Police took down that man’s information and asked him to leave. It was unclear if the man was issued a citation.