(BLAINE) – Work has begun on the new senior center in Blaine.
The city broke ground on what will be a 15,000 square-foot facility for the Mary Ann Young Senior Center.
The current facility is only 5,000 square-foot building that’s mainly one large room and opened in 1982. It hosts dozens of seniors each day for a variety of activities, but city leaders say it’s time to expand what it can offer.
“One thing: we have absolutely no privacy here, so whenever we have any programming that requires privacy, we don’t have it,” said Senior Center Director Shelley Johnson. “We have a screen we can set up, but as far as volume, you can hear from the kitchen all the way to the back of the room here.”
“We want to make sure we meet the needs of our residents and as the city continues to grow, the population continues to age, and the programs for the senior adults become more and more popular, we need to have that facility available for those types of activities,” said Bob Therres, Blaine Assistant City Manager.
The new facility will be built adjacent to the current building in Aquatore Park. It will include space open to the general Blaine community.
Mary Ann Young’s family was a part of the ground breaking ceremony that took place Thursday.
The city hopes the new building will be open by the end of this year.
