Work begins on senior center

By Kathy Thomson

The former Shekinah office building, located catty-corner to the post office and near the Depot, is being re-purposed into a long-awaited senior citizens center, but funding is still needed to complete the transformation.

According to Albany city manager Billy Holson, pledges for the building are still outstanding.

“We’ve had some commitments made, but the money hasn’t actually come in yet, and I don’t count it until it’s in the account,” Holson said. “Right now, we’re using some of the city’s reserve money (to get started on the project). We’ve done the demolition and are starting on the next step.”

No city revenue has been budgeted for the senior citizen center, and the city’s reserves will be replenished as soon as the pledged monies come in.

Holson added that the renovation process will be slow, but increased funding could speed up the process.

Rodney Alexander’s construction crew has finished stage one, which was getting several walls out of the way.

According to president of the senior citizens center committee Tracy Sullivan, interior walls were torn down in order to open up the floor plan.

“Right now we are getting everything ready to start putting up sheetrock,” said Alexander. “I expect that we will start on that the end of this week or early next week. We still have two or three stages to go.”

Alexander said that the bathrooms will need to be made larger and a kitchen installed.

“We are still accepting donations to provide for handicap accessibility for the bathrooms and to complete other renovations,” said Sullivan. “We will be installing a kitchen so the seniors can have potluck meals.”

She added that they will still utilize ResourceCare for regular meal preparations.

“The senior center has a big parking lot, which will make it easier for the seniors, and the outside is handicap accessible,” Sullivan said. “Once the renovations are complete, we will be able to expand activities for education and also have games, fun, and fellowship! The seniors are super excited and are looking forward to moving into the new building.”

Currently there is no projected opening date.

“It will be sometime in 2020, but it will depend on how funds come in,” said Sullivan. “Once it is up and running, we expect to have it open Monday-Friday, probably from 9:00 a.m. until 5:00 p.m. In addition to planned activities, it will be available for seniors to just come and sit down, read the newspaper, and have a cup of coffee.”