SNOHOMISH – Construction for a new $1.5 million senior center is finally expected to start soon, cause for celebration for those who’ve been waiting for a new center for years.
Members of the Snohomish Senior Center met in the downstairs of a local church building for about two years, waiting to move into the new 60,000-square-foot building. But the project has hit one glitch after another.
“It’s a long pregnancy, basically,” said Karen Charnell, executive director of the Snohomish Seniors, which operates the senior center.
In June the city removed two piles of oil-contaminated soil and two underground water tanks at a 1.27-acre lot on Fourth Street for the new center. The work cost the city $66,000, City Manager Larry Bauman said.
The city bought the parcel near the Snohomish public library from Burlington Northern Railroad in 2001. The city doesn’t know how the soil was contaminated at the site, Bauman said.
The project has come a long way.
The senior center used to operate in a small pink house on Cypress Avenue. The original plan was to build the new center on the nearby site where a pioneer cemetery once was located.
But in December 2005, the city identified 96 places where it believed human remains were buried. That forced the city to move the project to Fourth Street.
Identifying the human remains cost the city about $159,000.
The city removed the pink house earlier this year, Bauman said. It plans to preserve the site as a historic cemetery.
Delays in the project have frustrated members and supporters of the senior center. Some members who spent time and energy for the new center died before they could see their dreams come true.
“It was difficult,” Maxine Bishop, the center’s treasurer, said. “We just had to go forward. We couldn’t stop.”
The center of about 300 members has operated in the downstairs of St. Michael’s Church for two years, Charnell said. Seniors pitched in money to pay $1,000 for each month’s rent.
The city also has given $1,000 monthly since April 2006 to help the center operate, she said.
Marietta Gray, a member of the center, said that she can’t wait to move into the new center. Gray usually visits the center four times a week.
“It’s really neat to have somewhere to come,” she said. “Otherwise, I’d be sitting around at home.”
Reporter Yoshiaki Nohara: 425-339-3029 or ynohara@heraldnet.com.
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