Village Moving Forward With Senior Center Expansion

Garden City seniors eagerly filled the room Monday afternoon at the Garden City senior center for a meeting to reveal plans for a long awaited expansion to the Golf Club Lane building.

Garden City Retired Men’s Club co-president George Salem, along with deputy mayor John Watras and Kevin Ocker, chairman of the Board of Commissioners of Cultural and Recreational Affairs, discussed plans to expand the center and add senior programs like catered affairs and senior picnics.

“Many consider this building the men's club building," Salem said. "This is not true. In reality there are perhaps about a dozen clubs that use this building periodically."

Last fall, Garden City seniors formed a committee, with trustee Watras as liaison, and began lobbying for the expansion. 

“The purpose of today’s meeting is to obtain a progress report from village officials as to what we have accomplished, where we stand, after five months of hard work from October to the present,” Salem said, “especially now because the village budget reviews and planning for the fiscal year 2012-13 have just been completed.”

Trustee Watras has served as liaison to this growing population for years. “I wanted to make sure we did get something done,” he said.

Ocker delivered the specifics of the expansion and the steps village officials are taking to move forward with the process. He also revealed additions to the new senior programs in the 2012-13 budget year.

Additional programs include replacing the pool table, adding sofas and chairs, obtaining funding to rent coach buses for trips (as of meeting time eight trips were projected), senior picnics, money for guest speakers and five opportunities for catered affairs at the center. Overall, Ocker said there is approximately $30,000 in activity money not previously present in past budgets.

“I can’t tell you enough how supportive they have been,” said Ocker, referring to the village’s board of trustees. “This project is real and going to happen.”

The 2012-13 budget allows for an approximate “$650,000 project to directly benefit seniors,” Ocker said. The projected plan proposes working through committees with interested seniors involved in the process. Multiple meetings with these focus groups “provides an opportunity for seniors to work with the architect before he puts anything down on paper,” he added.

Ocker said an RFP will be drafted within the next week or two. Once an architect is chosen, the focus group meetings and work with the committees will begin.

“There will be a lot of opportunity for input,” Ocker said, adding that the goal is to create “a true recreation center, not just a building used by groups.”