Palmer area seniors hope new center is built

PALMER — The new Palmer Senior Center lacks $4.5 million needed to begin construction.

The current building, which was built in the ‘50s, is in desperate need of more space for the ever-increasing seniors who need assistance.

Rachel Greenberg, the manager for the Palmer Senior Center says, “Since 1993 there has been a 400 percent increase in the number of seniors and less than a double increase in government funding.”

Disparity between funding and the increase of seniors has created a need for more adequate facilities, she said.

The answer is a new $9 million- to $11 million-building that would be able to serve the seniors.

With a new center there is an expected 200 percent increase in seniors to about 4,000 seniors.

The current senior center, founded in 1980, serves about 2,000 seniors yearly, provides 250 meals a day, and 22,000 rides a year. The target date for the construction of a new center, if the funding comes in, will be spring 2011.

In addition to providing meals and rides, the center also helps retrain and teach jobs skills to seniors in need of work. A loan program gives seniors the proper equipment that they may need. Wheelchairs, crutches and canes are just of a few the pieces of assistance equipment the center lends without charge.

Greenberg hopes that fundraisers such as the weekly Thursday Bingo game, the senior flea market, and Senior Follies (a production by the seniors) will supplement some of the needed money.

The remainder of the needed money will have to be through donations, grants and gifts. All donations can be made to the senior center and everything except credit card donations is accepted.

“Anything is appreciated and every little bit helps,“ says Greenberg.

Contact Lanier Hutcheson at lanier.hutcheson@frontiersman.com.