Center for seniors OK'd in Olivehurst
Yuba County's seniors can look toward Olivehurst, which the Board of Supervisors approved Tuesday as a new home for the senior center.
Within about a month, the Olivehurst Community Center will host the seniors, who will move their meals, bingo, computer lab, library and other programs and services into the building owned by the Yuba County Office of Education.
"It's been sitting very unused," said General Services Manager Doug McCoy, who began investigating where to move the county's senior center a year ago. The county will pay the education office $3,000 a month rent plus utility costs.
McCoy told supervisors the rent and other expenses wouldn't affect the county's bottom line until September, when a grant to pay rent for a senior center is set to run out.
The county spends between $1,800 and $2,000 a month now for utility costs on the existing senior center at the 14th Street annex in Marysville. The aging building would need $2.5 million in repairs to be in compliance with building code, McCoy told supervisors.
"Spending that is really throwing good money after bad," he said.
Seniors who attended the supervisors' meeting supported the move, though they had reservations.
Irene Broome, secretary-treasurer for the Yuba County Seniors, said she hoped the Area IV Agency on Aging would sign off on meal service at the new site after inspecting it later this week.
Broome also said she was concerned for what would happen when the yearly lease came up, given the Yuba County Office of Education will have a new county superintendent of schools by then.
"I have a feeling that there's not going to be a problem with that, but we have to look at it," she said. "Are we going to have to move again?"
There are also questions about the funding to support the center. Broome said outside the meeting the county has committed to paying rent for a year, though as McCoy noted to supervisors, once the grant expires, doing so will come from the county's general fund.
Both Broome and McCoy said they will look for additional grants to lessen the obligation going forward, and Broome said the rent should be re-negotiated next year.
"I don't think it should cost $3,000 a month, I really don't," Broome told supervisors. "And it's not fair to you."
Though seniors don't pay anything to use the center now, McCoy said it could be a possibility, if the board wanted to move in that direction.
The new location in Olivehurst might also boost use, because many seniors live in the area, Broome said. Ame Middleton, a Marysville resident, pointed out the move will mean losing a few members as well.
"We're going to do as much as we can to help out," Middleton said. "If we'll be there, we need to make the best of what we have."
During the discussion, Supervisor John Nicoletti pointed out the seniors needed to look at the full picture rather than lamenting losing a site many of them liked. The county could eventually build a dedicated senior center, though there's no plan as to when.
"To move them into a building like the 14th Street annex now, we'd be tarred and feathered for being so cruel to the seniors," he said. "Is it perfect? No. Is it forever? No."
The annex, which was a county hospital, is slated to be torn down. McCoy did not give a timetable.
Contact Appeal-Democrat reporter Ben van der Meer at 749-4709 or bvandermeer@appealdemocrat.com. For more Yuba County news, see Ben's blog "Yuba County Insider" at appealdemocrat.com.
