Dear editor,
I don’t like change. In fact, I take great comfort in my daily routine.
When my life is in chaos, all I want is to get back to normal, get back to my comfort zone.
I feel most people are like me, they don’t like change. There is no fear or anxiety when you know exactly what each day will bring.
Sometimes though, change is good.
Sometimes the benefits of change outweigh the downside and uncertainty that comes with change.
We feel this is the case with our senior centre. There are many benefits to be had if it moves to a newer, renovated, bigger facility.
More space, more parking (with potential to expand), room for card players and pool players to have fun without disturbing each other.
More room for functions like wedding showers and anniversaries and birthday parties.
More space for Tai Chi, even space for outdoor Tai Chi. And heat, there’s heat.
There are sound-dampening ceiling tiles designed to absorb sound instead of echoing it off a tile floor and bare walls. (And no, the ceilings are not lower because of the little people.)
There is space for additional activities like a craft and activity room or even a quiet reading room. Space for workshops or interesting speakers. Space for a workshop.
In short, the opportunity is there to have a better senior centre with room for more things for seniors and the potential to attract and engage more of our older citizens.
Studies show, active and engaged seniors have a much better quality of life. A senior centre with more capacity to offer this is surely a good thing.
Any and all logistical problems could be solved in a re-model.
All the issues with the current senior centre could be resolved in the new facility.
So . . . change. A lot of people are happy with it the way it is. Okay, that’s great.
However, there are a lot of seniors in town and more becoming seniors as time passes.
There are seniors who are not happy with the current centre, even though they might not be quite as vocal as the naysayers.
They have trouble with noise levels, they are cold.
They have to pay a parking ticket because they couldn’t find a space. (That parking ticket thing is a real thorn. A town property without adequate parking–a known fact–and a ticket from the town. Grrr.)
It is council’s responsibility to do the best for as many seniors as possible, not just the few who can walk to the current senior centre or a single vocal group using the centre. The future will bring even more users of a senior centre.
Money is always a factor. Costs to add on an insufficient number of square feet to the current senior centre would be in the $400,000 to $500,000 range. A few additional parking spaces, $50,000 ballpark.
A half a million dollars and the space, parking, heat, and noise problems would still be there.
If, in fact, renovation of either property is on the table, in our opinion, renovating the current property while hanging on to the same old problems, is not a financially responsible or conscientious way to move forward on this issue.
The opportunity is here to have a much better senior centre.
We would be very disappointed if we failed to take advantage of this opportunity.
Sincerely,
Debbie Ballard,
with some of
The Bridge Ladies
(Sharon Angus,
Evelyn Rawn,
Donna Gustafson,
Bev Angus, and
Lorna Robinson)
