Getting Centered

There are more wrinkles to the story of West Ashley getting its own senior citizen center than there are wrinkles in Tom Witman’s aging face.
For the past five years, Witman, a retired Navy man and president of his local neighborhood association, has been meeting with dozens of West Ashley seniors and politicos to get this part of town its own senior center. “Going to the one on James Island takes me 30 minutes sometimes,” he said.
And for five years, the process, or lack of one, has dragged on.
First floated was the idea to build a new spot on the campus of St. Francis Bon Secours Hospital on Glenn McConnell Parkway.
But that idea got sort-of scotched earlier this year when City Hall thought it would have to foot the entire $7 million bill to construct a new, stand-alone facility.
Then, St. Andrews Family Fitness Center, tucked in behind a Sam Rittenberg strip mall, got into the act. “We are fully prepared to make accommodations for a senior center here, be it on a temporary or permanent basis,” said Brian Burke, the general manager of the large public service district owned fitness facility.
But like Whitman, many of the seniors involved in tracking down a suitable site, feel the St. Andrews might not be the best, single-use fit, as they would have to share the facility. “They wanted us to use the racquetball courts to play cards, and the acoustics in there, and throughout most of the rest of the place, are terrible,” said Witman.
Then recently the announcement came from the Jewish Community Center (JCC) on Raoul Wallenberg that it was going to be building a new Addlestone Hebrew Academy near its current location. That meant the current school site, attached to and sharing facilities with the JCC would be available. “We are interested in finding a partner for a senior center here,” said Ronneca Watkins, the chief operating officer at the JCC.
Watkins said that one of the new school’s donors had recently met with Charleston Mayor Joseph P. Riley Jr. in hopes of swaying him to guide the center to the JCC’s current site. But even more recently, City Hall re-approached St. Francis, which already has run and managed a senior center for the city on James Island for the past 15 years and so it seemed the Glenn McConnell location had surged back into the lead.
Riley said that after consulting with his staff, the St. Francis option was the best use and conservation of resources. He said the city and the hospital have come to a rough understanding whereby the city would extend roads and utilities to the site, and in return, the hospital would manage the facility.
Roper St. Francis spokesman Shane Ellis said that while nothing is set in stone, the hospital is excited about the project and sees the need for it. But, he stressed, based on conversations with hospital CEO David Dunlap, the center was still in the “conceptual stage.”
Riley said that City Council had already set aside money at the end of the last fiscal year in June for the new facility. And while Riley said the JCC option was attractive, a building designed specifically for seniors and their activities made the best sense. He also stressed having the center so close to the hospital had obvious safety and management advantages.
Witman, said that if the St. Francis site is the one finally selected, then the hospital could build other offices and facilities on the site, and recoup some its value. “I gotta be honest, I think politics has gotten in the way an slowed everything up,” said Witman, lamenting the inability to even get a temporary site.
But according to Charleston County Councilperson Colleen Condon, who has been a driving force behind bringing a senior center to West Ashley, Riley may be the one who needs to slow down. “I don’t consider (the Roper St. Francis site) a done deal because there are still too many moving parts,” said Condon.
For Condon, the issue of timing is much more key than who will run it. “The JCC could have a facility up and running for us in less than a year,” said Condon, who adds that a stick-built center at Roper St. Francis could take between 3-5 years.
“Put bluntly, this is a service that is waaaay tardy,” said Condon, adding that she wasn’t “thrilled” about Riley’s preferred location since “that’s not where seniors live in West Ashley. They live near Highway 61 and Highway 17. St Francis would be the outer limit of that,” said Condon who has represented West Ashley on council since 2005.
Condon reiterated a past comment, confirming the county has close to $400,00 already saved up for the facility — a drop in the bucket compared to the appreciably higher total project estimate of $7 million.