After months of meetings the Mill Creek Senior Center Advisory Committee completed its work on Monday, Jan. 12, not quite agreeing on approximately four and one-half options to establish a dedicated facility for area seniors.
Consensus, after all, was not among the group’s objectives. However a handful of the mayor’s appointed committee members asked to rank the options that will be presented to the City Council on Jan. 27, the majority of the group, including three council members, said it was not their job to make recommendations.
The options are as follows:
• New construction on the city-owned Cook property — once intended for a public works shop — off of North Creek Drive.
• New construction or renovations to an existing facility at McCollum Park.
• New construction on a property owned by the Mill Creek Community Association available for lease to the Mill Creek Senior Center Foundation for $10 a year.
• Renovations to the City Hall Annex, also known as the Huntron Building, on Main Street. This site was also identified by the committee as a temporary location for the senior program, should the council favor new construction at a different location.
Each option has its share of challenges, but those involving McCollum Park and the MCCA property have monopolized the committee’s deliberations.
The opportunity for a partnership with the county on a shared community-senior center at McCollum Park is attractive to everyone, but the state of the economy combined with the complexities of a shared project will drag construction out some five or more years.
“That’s not something I can sign on to,” committee member and former mayor Kathy Nielsen said. “I agreed to be on this committee because I wanted find a permanent home for our seniors within the next two or three years … It could take 10 years to complete this project if you get the county involved.”
No matter the timeline, Mayor Terry Ryan and councilman Mark Harmsworth say the senior program can operate for many years out of the annex building; the city could even lease the space to the senior program, administer through the Bothell-based Northshore Senior Center, at a discounted rate. But hose details are beyond the scope of the advisory committee, several members have argued.
“We can’t address these issues, because we have no control over the amount of money (Northshore) is willing to pay or can afford to pay,” committee member Bill McElroy said. “I say this over and over, the council has to have these people at the table. Maybe the annex building is an option but you have to find out from Northshore.”
McElroy stressed that senior center foundation’s objective is only to raise money for construction of a new building.
“Any questions about expenses associated with the program have to go to Northshore,” he said. “When we’re talking about the MCCA site, if the council wants to know whether the MCCA can deed that property over to the city the council has to have that discussion.”
The mayor’s advisory committee was established after the senior center foundation asked the city in September to contribute $2 million towards construction at the MCCA site. City leaders have said they’re not comfortable investing public money into a building that won’t be sited on public property.
“That’s fair … I completely understand that,” McElroy said. “The MCCA property was what was available to us — the foundation — at the time we came up with our proposal for the city.”
Of all the options, the Cook property has been the least contentious, though questions about site constraints and accessibility to bus routes are still being investigated. Financing options include the establishment of a special taxing district and levies to pay for construction and maintenance; a private fundraising campaign or a combination of donations, grants and tax dollars.
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