By Dixon Bledsoe
After years of discussion, planning and hoping, ground will soon be broken on a new Senior Center at the corner of Westfield and West Main, property purchased by the City of Silverton from the Silver Falls School District.
The groundbreaking date is tentative, but construction is expected to start in August and will take about eight months to complete. Construction bids were to be submitted by June 23 and will be awarded on July 20.
The Silverton Area Seniors Center currently calls the Masonic Hall at 402 East Main St. home.
The architectural design process has been a nine-month journey, spearheaded by a local committee consisting of Ray Hunter, Ruth Cock, Victor Madge and Rich Barstad, as well three members of Rowell Brokaw Architects from Eugene. Peter King from the firm served as the project manager, and Madge, a Silverton architect, also provided architectural review.
The new facility is to be 5,752 square feet and will feature a 1,200 square-foot great room for large gatherings. It will also include a classroom, activity room, foot clinic room and a commercial kitchen. It will be built on a 2-acre parcel next to Robert Frost School.
“The City was notified by the Oregon Economic and Community Development Department that an additional grant of $295,000 is available for the project and would increase the total grant from OECDD to $1,095,000 for the center. The funds are being made through the federal economic stimulus program,” said Rich Barstad, Public Works supervisor for the City of Silverton.
Barstad is especially pleased because several other grant applications have not been awarded. “At this time, the total expected grant and donation funds for this project stand at $1,255,000, and if the City receives another $40,000 in donations by October, an additional $100,000 matching grant will be available through the Ford Foundation for this project,” he said.
Ray Hunter, Senior Center president and a member of the design committee, is excited.
“The commercial kitchen is going to be really impressive, and we will have dining for 104 people. The steaming table for serving food from Northwest Senior Services and Disabilities will be owned by the Silverton Senior Center. The classrooms will be wonderful, and Silverton Hospital will be conducting two foot clinics each week in the center. All the rooms will be multi-purpose.”
The new center will also have state-of-the-art lighting. It will be a relatively green facility, with solar hot water heating, and it will be handicap amenable.
“These designers know what they are doing. This is going to be a terrific facility for our community,”Hunter said.
Barstad pointed out that it will also be a high-tech center.
“Thanks to the incredible work of Maurice Leach, who has been working with the new high school on their audio-visual and technology training rooms; we have the rooms wired correctly for AV. We might not have got it all done without him coming forward.”
Barstad and Hunter also anticipate dramatic increases in the number of people served in the new facility.
“We have long hallways for tables, chairs and puzzles. Of course there will be Bingo and a host of other activities for the community. We really want to get more seniors involved,” Hunter said.
In the future, the Senior Center may have new neighbors of both the two-legged and four-legged variety. The area has been targeted for a future skate park and a dog park.
“The seniors really like the idea of having kids up there. It will be a nice mix, and this is definitely a Center to serve seniors but also the entire community,” Hunter said.
