Senior center designs released

Aug. 12—Owensboro city officials released designs for a proposed Senior Community Center on Thursday and said the plans are the result of working and consulting with local seniors.

The majority of city commissioners said they approve of the designs, although Mayor Tom Watson said he had concern about whether the Senior Community Center and the Owensboro Family YMCA could raise the additional funds needed for the project. Senior center Director Becky Barnhart said the designs are preliminary, and board members are concerned the plan does not provide enough space.

The plan calls for a 13,150-square-foot expansion to be built onto the Family Y facility at Kentucky Parkway. The addition would include space for seniors to have their own center, separate from the YMCA, although the facilities would share some space.

The senior center would include a large auditorium, kitchen, courtroom, billiard and game rooms and other space. Meals on Wheels would also operate out of the facility.

City Manager Nate Pagan said the proposal would cost between $9 million to $10 million to build. Barnhart said there were two options, with one costing $10.3 million and the "top scope" option costing $12.4 million.

Commissioner Jeff Sanford said discussion over a new senior center have been ongoing for 10 to 12 years.

"I remember talking to the judge-(executive), and we looked at both entities, and some of their services were identical," Sanford said. The thought was "what if those to institutions came together" in a shared space?

Daviess Fiscal Court has allocated $2 million in its current budget to the project, and Pagan said previously the city has up to $3 million, mostly in American Rescue Plan Act dollars, that it can put toward financing the center.

The current senior center, at the Elizabeth Munday Center on West Second Street, is old and inefficient, Pagan said. Sanford said building a new senior center at the YMCA would be a better location.

"The Y is exactly in the middle of where everyone is coming from," Sanford said.

YMCAs in other parts of the country have entered into similar partnerships, he said.

Mayor Pro Tem Larry Maglinger said having the two organizations together in one facility "would be a perfect match."

"The Y serves 1,000 seniors" now and could add seniors, he said.

John Alexander, president and CEO of the Family Y, said the two agencies would have joint programs, such as exercise classes, that seniors could attend at the Y. To have access to other Y programs and facilities, seniors would have to become Y members, Alexander said.

"We are working very hard to make access to the Y available," he said.

The Y offers scholarships to cover fees and memberships, and seniors who have SilverSneakers health plans through Medicare coverage would have their Y memberships covered by their plans, Alexander said.

Pagan said Kentucky Wesleyan College would be part of the programming for the senior center. Pagan said KWC would allow senior center users to audit classes for free, and KWC students would have use of the YMCA's facilities.

The childcare center at the Y would be moved into a nearby building the YMCA owns, where it would not be connected to the senior center, Pagan said.

The facility would have a shared main entrance and the street around the Y would be rerouted to bring parking closer to the building. Seniors would have their own space that only they could use, Pagan said.

"I think a lot of the seniors have assumed they would be shoe-horned into the existing building," he said.

Maglinger said seniors have been part of helping design the facility.

"The seniors that were in our meetings, they have had a lot of input on this," he said.

Watson said the YMCA and senior center would have to raise millions of dollars for the plan to become a reality.

"I think it's a good plan," Watson said. "The only negative is the Y and the senior center have to have a fundraiser."

The $9 to $10 million estimate is correct "if you started today," Watson said. Inflation and difficulties getting construction materials have made projects more expensive.

Commissioner Mark Castlen said he has heard from some seniors who say they don't want be in a facility with children and teens. If "children get rowdy" the seniors fear being knocked down, he said.

"There are quite a few legitimate concerns I've heard," Castlen said. "I do know the seniors are not happy about it, the majority of them."

Castlen said of the city's $3 million promise to the center: "I still feel we are neglecting them, spending $9.5 million on a boat dock and leaving them out to dry with $3 million."

Later Thursday, after reviewing the plan again, Castlen said: "I hope the seniors will definitely consider it, and I hope it works out for them. If not, I guess we'll just have to go back to the drawing board and see what we can come up with."

Commissioner Bob Glenn said he would like to move seniors off West Second Street to another site, and he approves of the plan.

"Seniors are resistant," he said. "It makes sense you would be resistant to change when leadership hasn't shown you the designs. A lot of it is fear of the unknown."

The senior center earns revenue from renting offices at the Munday Center. Glenn said the city will address that issue for the center. He also said seniors need to move out of the Munday Center, which officials have said does not meet their needs.

"I think it is reprehensible, and would be irresponsible, for us to keep them in that building," Glenn said.

Barnhart said the senior center board has concerns about the design.

"Based on the preliminary design, we don't feel it's enough space," she said.

The plan would have 11,000 square feet for the senior center and 2,400 square feet the seniors and the YMCA would share, Barnhart said.

"What we have been told by the architect is these are preliminary," she said, "and once we have determined how much funding we will be able to obtain, that will determine what the final design would be like."

The senior center board and the YMCA board are negotiating a memorandum of understanding on how the two organizations would operate if they are housed at an expanded Y.

Barnhart said a consultant will have to be hired to do a study on how much money could be obtained by fundraising.

"It will be a lot of money that will need to be raised from the community to make this happen," she said.

The funds the city and county have promised to the facility would count as the senior center's contribution to the project, Barnhart said.

"We are a city agency" and a nonprofit, while the YMCA is "a private agency," she said.

James Mayse, 270-691-7303, jmayse@messenger-inquirer.com, Twitter: @JamesMayse