New Senior Center

By Florence "Flossie" Horgan

Yes, we need a new senior center. The current center does not meet the needs of the growing senior population.

WITH FLOSSIE
Frequently Asked Questions from you for Flossie:

THE FOCUS: THE SENIOR CENTER

What are your views on the Senior center?

Q Do you support a new senior center?

A Yes, I am a senior and I believe that a new senior center is needed. The current center no longer is able to meet the needs of the growing number of residents who want to use it.

Here is the "rest of the story"....

Having said that- I feel that we need some real answers to get to the best solution to meet this need.

Q Where should it be?

A The search to find a new location needs to be expanded to include sites that would be appropriate for a new state of the art senior center class rooms, full exercise and fitness capacity including an exercise swimming pool for the seniors alone. My masters is in biology with an emphasis on exercise physiology. As we age, our joints become weaker and high impact sport activity can cause pain. A viable and beneficial form of exercise is therapeutic aquatics. Any serious planning for a state of the art senior center must include a swimming pool for the center.

All of the sites evaluated were limited to visual assessment only. No adequate documentation was available at the time. Soil conditions, underground utilities, easements ,and contamination of sites all need to be addressed.

Q What is the correct size for such a facility.?

A. The proposed 45, 000 square ft center is massive and would include a community hall for rentals for weddings, birthdays and special events. A senior center is for seniors. There needs to be more discussion on this.

Q Will there need to be more staff hired as well??

A According to the study commissioned by the City Council of LPA and TSMG, there will need to be three new employees to staff such a facility! a. a community relations person who markets the facility to create revenue; b. a fitness wellness coordinator to help support the center; c. a building maintenance/ custodian to maintain the facility.

Q How are we to finance this venture? A This is the real question--and the one that needs more than just saying "yes". I want to support a viable senior center and want to do the real work behind the "yes" to make it happen. Using park fees to build a building in the park raises questions of fiscal responsibility.

Q The LPA study states "A beautiful community hall with seating for 300 and patio and garden. Is that what we need or want to do at a senior center?

We all remember the fiasco associated with the youth sports complex. It was to be a youth sports complex, but now serves adult leagues. It was put on the ballot as costing 1.8 million but its true cost was over 18 million. The City pays 1 mllion dollars a year on debt service on this complex.

Bottom Line: Ultimately, the people will decide as measure C requires a vote of the people if the City wants to build on any park or open space in the City. So on the November ballot, the senior center proposal to build in Central Park will be decided by the people.

We have four months to discuss the issues surrounding this proposal.