Plans to relocate senior center on hold, Celina Record, Feb. 11, 2016

City’s plans to relocate Celina Senior Center put on hold Lisa Ferguson, lferguson@starlocalmedia.com Feb 11, 2016 0 People who frequent the Celina Senior Center on Monday received some welcomed news from City Manager Mike Foreman. The center, at 140 N. Ohio St., had been slated to be relocated to allow for the expansion of city government offices into the current space as part of renovations taking place next door at City Hall. During a regularly scheduled weekly luncheon at the center, Foreman announced to the couple dozen people in attendance that plans to move the center have been put on hold until a suitable replacement site can be located and secured. “At this time, we think it’s a better idea if we just keep you where you’re at today … and then we are going to attempt over the next year or two years to find a better location for you that will serve you better,” Foreman told the crowd, which greeted the announcement with applause. In recent months, city leaders had made plans to relocate the senior center to the former city hall building, at 302 W. Walnut St., which currently houses offices for the Celina Economic Development Corp. and Celina Main Street. The city’s permitting and building inspection offices have also been temporarily relocated there. Decades ago, the building served as a bank. It still features a vault as well as other design elements that would have necessitated major – and likely costly – remodeling and renovations for it to accommodate a senior center. Those issues and others concerned Ralph O’Dell, a longtime resident of Celina who also serves as an unofficial spokesman for the center and the local senior-citizen community. He said he learned several months ago from Foreman about plans to relocate the center. “That building wouldn’t be satisfactory for a senior community center, even renovated,” O’Dell said of the Walnut Street location, given the activities that regularly take place at the current senior center. Up to 30 people attend each of the low-impact exercise classes held there three days per week. The workouts are usually followed by lunch provided to the seniors by local businesses, churches and community organizations. Other activities include wood carving and knitting group meetings, as well as bingo and card games. Most recently, the center’s space – which through the late 1940s housed a grocery store – has been used by various city boards as meeting space while City Hall undergoes its renovations. The center also serves residents from Prosper, some of whom travel to Celina to participate in activities because that town does not have a senior center. O’Dell said the cost of renovating the building on Walnut Street “just wouldn’t be worth it. It’s money thrown away.” Instead, he and other residents suggested turning Kirk Hall, adjacent to First United Methodist Church at 112 N. Colorado St., into a senior center. The city purchased the church several years ago and plans to take possession of the property later this year. However, Foreman said Kirk Hall has already been designated by the city as the future Celina Police Department headquarters. Late last week, Foreman and Celina Mayor Sean Terry met with O’Dell to discuss possible scenarios for the senior center’s future. “Me and the mayor and Ralph sat down and discussed all the issues that the seniors were bringing up,” Foreman said. “During the conversation we decided, let’s take another look at this. Let’s leave them where they’re at, listen to their concerns and … if there is another option, let’s take a look at that option and see if we can make everybody happy.” O’Dell said he is “satisfied” that “we’ve delayed the program that they had in mind. … It’s on hold for now until we can find someplace else” to relocate. “We’ve been looking for a year now, but not as hard as we’ll be looking now.” While speaking at the senior center Monday, Foreman explained that the city would postpone its office-expansion plans for the space, and also begin looking for grants to help cover the cost of relocating the center to another location, or to possibly build a new center. “That’s what Ralph’s and my next step is,” he told the crowd. “We want to get out there and look for a building that’s a lot better than this one is right here that will hold two or three times more people.” Paralea Pell said she was “very relieved” to learn the senior center will stay put for now. “I was worried about where we were going to go,” the 83-year-old said. “We’re bursting at the seams, but we’re still able, so far, to [handle] it. We’re happy here.”