MILL CREEK — Mill Creek seniors are asking the city for $2 million to help fund construction of an 11,000-square-foot senior center.
Without the dedicated facility, program administrators say service in the local community will likely end due to the increasing costs to lease office and classroom space.
The Mill Creek Senior Center Foundation, which is spearheading the campaign, made its pitch to City Council members last week, arguing that health and wellness services, educational programs, public meeting space and other amenities will be useful to not just the aging population, but to all Mill Creek residents.
“We applaud the city for taking care of the youth in this community and providing playfields and recreation programs,” foundation board member Max Rigleman said. “It’s time to take care of our aging population — to bring some balance in the services provided. Let’s set aside a play area for senior citizens. It’s their turn now.”
The senior center foundation came together in 2006 to gather support for a permanent home. A year later, residents of the Mill Creek Community Association — more than 10,000 people — voted to allow construction of the senior center on a property worth approximately $2 million. The community association will collect annual lease payments of $10 from the foundation for 50 years.
“I fully support this initiative,” Councilwoman Mary Kay Voss said before the Sept. 9 meeting. “The entire city will benefit and we’ll spend a whole lot less than we would if we provided these services all on our own.”
Hundreds of people — most of them senior citizens— squeezed their way inside council chambers, while last-minute stragglers filled the lobby outside. They were hoping for a quick decision, but the council was not prepared to vote on the issue. Instead, council members promised a verdict by the end of October.
“Nobody here goes home at night and says to themselves, ‘I wonder how we can stop seniors from getting a senior center,’” Mayor Terry Ryan said. “If success is building a facility, then there is more than one path to follow. I think there is room for compromise and room to look at alternative options.”
His comments were met with moans and groans.
Someone in the audience whispered, “We’ll all be dead and buried by the time they build this thing.”
“The senior program will go away if we don’t do something now,” Voss said. “They are in an emergency, crisis situation and it’s up to us to step up to the plate.”
If the council agrees to spend the money, the contribution will be characterized as an investment to ensure taxpayers receive benefits in return.
Among those benefits: the facility could serve as an emergency operations center in the event of a disaster, it would be available for rent by the public and offer a space for community programs.
“Their proposal is more than reasonable,” Voss said.
Mill Creek is one of five cities statewide that doesn’t have a dedicated facility where elderly residents can gather and socialize.
“If we see fit to provide a parks and recreation program for our young people, we should do the same for our aging citizens,” Voss said.
Senior programs in the greater Mill Creek area — provided by Northshore Senior Center — are spread throughout the community in churches and other local facilities, while a single administrator oversees operations from an office in the Washington State University Extension Center at McCollum Park.
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