Senior center needed in Palmer

The Mat-Su Valley’s senior population received a boost recently when Gov. Sarah Palin gave the green light to some $3.2 million to help fund a new senior center in Palmer.

Now housed in a 50-year-old building that used to be the city’s Mormon church, the Valley’s growing senior population needs projects like the new Palmer Senior Citizens Center. With the recent state windfall and about $1.1 million from a combination of sources over the past year, the effort is off to a good start, and the quest for funds continues.

With rising fuel and construction material costs, local seniors are still a far cry from the estimated $8 million it will take to build a new facility. That there’s a need for more and better senior care in the Mat-Su is evident. In addition to the services at the Veterans and Pioneers Home in Palmer and the Wasilla Senior Center, the Palmer Senior Citizens Center is busy preparing up to 300 meals a day and driving about 1,000 miles delivering those meals and shuttling seniors around town.

As state lawmakers consider the future of the proposed Alaska Gasline Inducement Act and Mat-Su Borough officials look for creative ways to fund the millions of dollars in local transportation needs, we must not forget those segments of our local population that need our support the most. Growth brings more families, children, schools, cars, roads and health care. It also brings more seniors who depend on the services provided by agencies like the Palmer Senior Citizens Center.

Seniors want and need a place to congregate, eat a healthy meal, exercise, learn, engage in activities and recreate. The Palmer center tries to fill those roles in a building that is ill-suited for the purpose and too small for the growing senior population. In the same way that the Latter-day Saints congregation outgrew that building and constructed a large, modern facility, so must the Palmer Senior Citizens Center have a facility that does what Wasilla’s does — provide easy access and adequate space for seniors to get both the services they need and the camaraderie they desire under one roof and on one level.

As the center seeks additional funding through private, state and federal grants, making the care and welfare of our seniors must remain a priority. Palin’s approval is a good start. The Palmer Senior Citizens Center, its staff and volunteers have been working hard for 19 years to improve the quality of life for Valley’s seniors. If our state coffers are flush enough to help alleviate the effects of escalating fuel prices (as Palin proposes), then every effort must be made to find the remaining funds to build this new center.