Mission seniors are still patiently waiting for a report to come before council regarding a new seniors’ centre.
The issue, which has been ongoing for the past decade, was last discussed before council in July, when a resolution was released stating, “Council is committed to the redevelopment of the Mission Activity Centre to a multi-generational seniors’ centre, subject to a favourable inspection and evaluation by a qualified professional consultant.”
Since then, there has been no public word on the progress of the report.
Bob Ingram, a director of the Mission Seniors Association and coordinator of the new centre project, said there has been one meeting with the architects so far.
“We saw the preliminary plans and we made a number of suggestions, through the planning committee, to make some changes, but it’s that final drawing that we want to see now.”
Ingram said he doesn’t think seniors have much longer to wait as he expects the final report to be ready soon.
“I am expecting that the architects will be filing a report with council within the next week to 10 days and we will then see where it goes from there.”
He expects there will be two options presented regarding the new centre.
“One is to renovate and add on to the current structure. The second is to built a different centre on the same location.”
Currently, the Mission Seniors Activity Centre is located on 10th Avenue and was originally a temporary fire hall. The report was requested to see if the building was capable of being expanded safely.
Ingram, who has been involved in the project for the past 10 years, says he’s optimistic about the upcoming report.
He said he began this journey dealing with Mission Mayor James Atebe and has continued to fight for a centre with Mayor Ted Adlem and now Randy Hawes.
“I never give up.”
If a new centre, or a renovation is approved, the concept is still to create a multi-generational site.
“The whole intent is to have a combined youth and seniors’ centre, no question about that. The plans that are being put together certainly are in keeping with that concept,” said Ingram.
“What we hope we will have when all is said and done is a centre which has a youth centre and a seniors’ centre. Some facilities will be dedicated to the youth for their programming, some to seniors for their programming but much of the facility will be multi-use.”
Ingram is hopeful that they can create some cross-generational programming that includes youth and seniors in some activities together.
“It’s long overdue.”