Gym

Friends' Central basketball coach Mike Mersky thought he had become involved in every kind of situation possible over the last 10 years - until Tuesday. That's when Mersky decided to take his team home and postpone a game against Mercy Vocational after seeing Mercy's gymnasium in Philadelphia for the first time. Mersky said that the gym was too small and that the structure's walls were just 1-to-2 feet from the baselines, posing a potential threat of injury to his players.

The Bensalem school board postponed new gym fees for youth groups Wednesday night, saying the charges needed to be reviewed and recalculated. The board adopted the fees in June, but several board members have decided they had not done their "homework" or asked the right questions in advance of the decision. The board will reconsider next year. The fees were a "culture shock" for youth organizations, including Valley Athletic Association and the St. Charles Borromeo and St. Ephraim Catholic Youth Organizations, said Ralph G. Douglass, a school board member.

To the customers, it seemed like a sweet deal: Pay $119 for the promise of yearlong access to a new, state-of-the art workout facility scheduled to open within a few months. But more than a year later, according to the State Attorney General's Office, Bensalem Total Fitness & Dance is still just an address and more than 1,000 "members" are out some $170,000. The state announced yesterday that it had filed three lawsuits against the owner of Bensalem Fitness, 2335 Neshaminy Blvd.

From the outset, it was clear that George Braswell's dream was in trouble. There were too many opponents who wanted no more intrusions into their neighborhood. When the body builder's attorney, I. Sidney Sherwin, rose from his seat Thursday to make a case for Braswell's private gymnasium, he found himself flanked by people from City Hall who wanted to tell the Zoning Board of Adjustment why they opposed the proposal. Braswell, who operates a gym in the Olney section of the city, had applied to the board for a use certificate that would allow him to make a turn-of-the- century building in Burholme available to serious body builders.

In Northeast Philadelphia, drywalls enclose the corner of a technical school's auto shop. Steel garage doors surround the outer walls, while car-shaped grooves blemish the cement floor. Above the area's doorway is one hand-written word: "Gym. " "It brings us down to not have somewhere to have fun and get in shape," tenth-grader Silvia Pereira said. "We've never had that. " Pereira is a student at Swenson Arts & Technology High School which is going to look very different very soon.

The Tredyffrin Board of Supervisors voted unanimously Monday to grant a certificate of appropriateness to the Tredyffrin/Easttown School District allowing construction of an addition to the Conestoga High School gymnasium. The gym is close to the historic Van Leer Log Cabin. The cabin dates to the 1800s and is on the east side of Irish Road about 160 feet from the high school. The addition will bring the school to within 35 feet of the cabin. Township zoning ordinances require at least 250 feet between a historical structure and any new construction.

Devon Prep played anything but the cordial host in its 61-45 nonleague victory over Springfield Wednesday. "I can't remember ever playing well at that place," said Springfield head coach Jack Spinella. "The lighting is terrible, the quarters are close, and it is just a very hard place to play basketball. It gives them a tremendous home-court advantage, and I can't remember any opposing coach saying that their team played well there. " The Spartans, playing their third consecutive road game, did not play well there early and fell behind 18-9 by the close of the first period.

President Clinton is going to Norristown, and the Eagles' basketball team has been forced to the sideline. A presidential visit is scheduled for Thursday at the high school, with the gymnasium as the focal point for Clinton's appearance. The gym has been closed for security purposes, so Tom McGee's basketball team has nowhere to practice and has had to reschedule tomorrow night's home game against Upper Dublin. "We can't get into our gym until Thursday," McGee said after his team's 66-65 overtime loss to Newark East Side on Saturday.

It took a long time - some say 12 years - but a new gymnasium is just a City Council vote away from becoming a reality in the Northeast's Academy Gardens area. Score another point for volunteerism - and tenacity - in the Northeast. Since 1989 two new gyms have been built in the area by using a bit of creative planning - and city land leased to community organizations for $1 a year. The city may pick up the tab on utilities, but the cost of construction, maintenance, equipment and liability insurance is covered by the sponsoring organizations.

Moe drives to the gym every morning, but Fay always brings an extra set of keys, because once he locked his in the trunk. They prefer gray sweats to Spandex, conversation to headphones. They are so unfashionable that they barely perspire. Yet they inspire. Moe and Fay Lurie are both 93. They still go to the gym almost every day, and are great examples of so many trends in healthy aging. Long established is the benefit of exercise, as well as what some aging experts call "the protective value of marriage.