FAIRMONT– With the sale of the Senior Center building at 414 Downtown Plaza, City Administrator Cathy Reynolds said that the intent is to move the Senior Center concept to the Senior Place that will be located in room 127 in the SMEC building. The Senior Place will have handicapped accessibility and will be open to seniors in the community to enjoy.

Originally the Senior Center had a group that got together three times a week to play cards. The new location will be open to all seniors in the community and allow them free access. The function of the Senior Place is for seniors to bring friends with them, play cards, put together puzzles, have coffee, and hang out. The new CER offices in the SMEC building will be right across from the Senior Place and will allow CER to create additional programming and give them an opportunity to further engage seniors in the community.

The transition process consisted of shutting down the old Senior Center and working on the room in the SMEC building. The room in the SMEC building has received a small refrigerator, a new handicapped-accessible door, and some cleaning to the room.

Reynolds has been approached by several individuals asking about a Senior Center asking to utilize the Senior Center building. The Senior Center building originally was only open during designated times and there was not a whole lot of free access.

“I had been approached by numerous people that wanted that Senior Center and wanted that ability to utilize that space or a space for a Senior Center that didn’t feel they had access to the existing one,” Reynolds said. “So that’s kind of what started the thought process of putting it into the SMEC building where we can have it open during business hours because the building is already open and a little bit more free access to everyone in the community versus just during those certain hours and days.”

Reynolds wanted to send the overall message to readers and the community to enjoy the space and come get together with their friends.

“We as a community have this great building (SMEC) that is in a great location with great views and some great history,” Reynolds said. “We have this building and we want to provide this service to this community and we think that there’s people who want this so allow it to be that service and place for the community to gather. It goes hand in hand with moving CER into the space to really create a resource and a central place for the community to gather, for programming, socialization, for activities and as we develop the building out more there will be opportunities for more rentals for spaces”

The Senior Place is anticipated to open on May 3rd. The business hours will start Monday-Friday 8 a.m. to 5 p.m.