Mirabeau Senior Center Plan Unveiled
Supporters of a new Valley senior center at Mirabeau Point got their first glimpse this week of what the facility might eventually look like.
Architect Ron Tan incorporated a long wish list into a bubble layout drawing of the proposed facility, which will be more than twice as large as the current Valley Senior Center on Mission Avenue. The new senior center, expected to be completed four or five years from now, will measure about 21,000 square feet.
Although the architectural drawings are expected to be tweaked and altered significantly before a final layout is set, they did show what the Mirabeau Senior Center Task Force is planning to include in the new center.
Like the current senior center, the new facility will have a “great room” for dances and activities, a kitchen, a pool room and classrooms.
But it also will have several new additions, including a lounge/library, arts and crafts studio, audio/visual room, a deck overlooking the river, a volunteer office and director’s office. The task force hopes to use one of the center’s new classrooms as a computer center, with access to printers and the Internet.
Currently, the Valley senior center has no computers and doesn’t even own a television set, board member Madeline Luedtke said.
Luedtke and Milt Olson, the center’s former president, have toured numerous senior centers throughout the West to get ideas for the new center.
They want to accentuate the view the new center will have of the Spokane River and create a building and front entrance that attracts new members.
They hope to expand the hours of the new center, so it can offer evening activities. The current senior center now closes at 3:30 p.m.
The Valley senior center has about 600 members. It is housed in a building that is more than 20 years old, and must be replaced because it is slowly sinking into the landfill over which it was built.
The Mirabeau Point project will include several sports and community facilities on the site of the former Walk in the Wild zoo. Officials working on the project have not determined where the senior center will be located on the site. They hope to pin that down within the next few months, said J. Kent Adams, Mirabeau board member.
Supporters have obtained just over $2 million in funding for the project, although $1.5 million of that is county money which will not be available until 2000.
The center had an estimated cost of $2.7 million before an additional 4,000 square feet was added on. A new cost figure hasn’t been calculated, Adams said.
Supporters will do some additional fund-raising later this year. They hope to get funding from foundations, service clubs and businesses.
By fall, Mirabeau Point officials hope to hold an open house to update the community on overall plans for the project, including the senior center.
, DataTimes