Senior Center Debate Getting Old

What was supposed to be an unveiling of sorts last Thursday for a plan for a proposed senior center in West Ashley instead became a rehashing of issues already circling the project.
Allen Carroll, the chief executive officer of Roper St. Francis Healthcare, invited a bevy of local politicians, punctuated by Mayor Joseph P. Riley Jr., to his downtown hospital’s seventh-floor boardroom for the presentation.
Seated around the heavy wooden table were politicos, health care administrators and representatives of this community’s grey-haired citizenry.
Allen, aided by a computer projector, walked those assembled through his health care group’s plan for a massive $8.5-million senior center to be located on Roper’s West Ashley hospital campus.
Surrounded by lush greenery and parking lots bordered by Henry Tecklenberg Drive and Savage Road, the main building would be visible from the Mark Clark Expressway. And it would cut down on the driving distance for roughly 17,000 seniors in this part of town.
The proposed center would be run and managed by Roper.  It would be close to the hospital, just in case. And it would be state-of-the-art, just like the senior center on Riverland Drive on James Island.
But then some of the same old problems arose. The first being money.
Riley told the assembled, which included County Council member Colleen, that the city already had over $2 million committed to the project.
Condon, who is said to be considering a run for Riley’s office when he retires in two years, chipped in that the county already had on hand for the current fiscal year close to a half-million dollars dedicated to the proposal.
That brings the total to just short of $3 million on hand for a project that hasn’t yet been built.  But it leaves a little over $5 million unfunded, with some mitigation for the land being sold for a “nominal” amount.
Riley stood, as the other politicos remained seated throughout the presentation and ensuing discussion, and spoke on the funding question. He said that he wanted to go ahead with the project with the idea that the city would remain committed to it, and find the complete funding soon.
One option Riley proffered was to fund construction of the center by using leftover funds at the end of the city’s fiscal year — money that would result from the city’s “conservative” budgeting process to leave it “in the black.” Back-of-the-envelope math would have it that a half-million extra a year for 10 years would just about cover it.
But when pressed after the meeting as to how much money that “extra” amount usually was, Riley balked, saying he didn’t know the exact amount for even the fiscal year that ended July1.
City Councilman Aubry Alexander called for further city commitment, looking into alternative funding options, like issuing bonds, as long as it didn’t result in a net tax increase.
The next issue that cropped up, rubbing some of the glimmer off the presentation, was that of timing.
For five years, seniors had been asking for a center on this side of the Wappoo Cut, and Riley said that optimistically, construction could begin as early as next year and be done within 18 months under the Roper plan.
But Tom Wittman, the “anchor” of the senior movement supporting a new center according to Councilman Keith Waring, said such a timeline could mean, in real terms, a three-year delay before the center was completed.
“We want a place of our own,” said Witt man, urging speed.
Condon echoed Wittman’s concern, saying this was a blazing need that needed to be rectified.
Condon then took those at the meeting down a different path, introducing the possibility of locating the center at the Jewish Community Center. Located off Raoul Wallenberg Boulevard, the JCC is going through a massive change.
Local billionaire Anita Zucker, ranked by Forbes magazine as the 209^th richest person in America, was spearheading an effort to build a new facility for the JCC’s private K-8 Addlestone Hebrew Academy.
A new school facility would free up a large portion of the community center, which could accommodate a senior center, replete with a much-desired pool and other existing amenities like a weight-room.
City Councilman Bill Moody brought up a different kind of timing issue. He said it seemed the city and Roper were already significantly underway in the formal request-for-proposal process of a Roper-based center.
Moody seemed to think that by reversing course at this point, several months after Roper had re-entered discussions with the city, could harm the municipality’s good reputation.
Riley argued that while the JCC had some enviable aspects, he believed a built-to-suit center at the Roper West Ashley campus was the best way to go.
Earlier that morning at his regular Thursday morning roundtable at Sojourn Coffee on Old Town Road, Alexander said city staffers were looking into whether a new stand-alone “accredited” senior center would make it easier to search for federal matching grants.
Alexander also said that while a larger number of senior citizens in West Ashley currently live closer to the JCC than Roper, “where will it be in 20, 30 years? We have to build a center for the future.”
Through all this, Roper’s Carroll sat quietly and answered questions when needed. “We’re just doing this to do our part as a good neighbors.”
Responding to a concerned voiced several times, Carroll underscored that due to cost, maintenance worries and insurance exposure, that his healthcare group’s plan did not include a swimming pool.
But after the meeting, he said informally that perhaps space in the facility and in the overall budget could be found for smaller therapeutic pools for seniors to use for rehab and exercise.
So when the meeting adjourned, nothing had been signed and nothing had officially been decided. Riley’s support was evident for one plan, and Condon, while she praised the Roper plan, also harbored questions about the JCC.
But Wittman called it a success. “For the first time, the people in my group, who have been meeting for five years, were heard,” he said. “It’s great to know that our voices matter.”