February 8, 2007

By Virgil Hervey

Last Tuesday, the Yellow Springs Senior Center (YSSC) held a membership meeting to address the future of the Senior Center and possible relocation to the 1.6 acre “Barr property,” at the corner of Xenia Avenue and Limestone Street.

The Morgan Family Foundation (MFF) purchased the property last November with the idea that it might someday become an arts center. However, although the trustees leaned in that direction, Vicki Morgan told the News at that time that, beyond purchasing the property, the foundation had no intention of deciding what would become of it.

“The foundation is interested in the best possible, highest use of the property for the long-term benefit of Yellow Springs,” MFF Executive Director Lori Kuhn said. “A number of groups have been talking to us about use of the property. We have been listening and encouraging them to collaborate.”

One of those groups is the Friends Care Community (FCC), which expressed an interest in the property as the potential site of affordable senior housing. More recently the trustees of the Senior Center turned its sights on the property.

In a recent interview, Senior Center Director Rodney Bean outlined what he felt to be the trends that would dictate a greater demand for services in a village with an aging population: the baby-boomers are achieving senior citizen status; people are living longer; more seniors prefer to remain in their homes instead of moving into nursing homes; and the senior population is experiencing a more rapid growth as a percentage of the whole population in Yellow Springs than in other communities.

“Ten years down the road this will be a big challenge for this community,” Bean said. “This is a local problem that needs a local solution.”

Bean’s philosophy is that “Yellow Springs people should be served by Yellow Springs people,” not caregivers brought in from Xenia or Fairborn.

According to Bean, Friends Care Community wanted use of the whole Barr property, but MFF turned them down, suggesting that they join forces with another nonprofit. When YSSC Board Chair Alex Roche approached the foundation, Kuhn saw the chance for the kind of collaboration they had been looking for. “I would love to see them work together,” she said in a recent interview.

So, according to Bean, FCC and YSSC are talking. As FCC has already been looking into affordable senior housing for several years, he envisions a scenario where FCC could get started on their project and the Senior Center could join in at a later time. He said that no proposal for a Senior Center only project had been made to MFF.

YSSC has approximately 350 members, Bean said. Seventy-one of them showed up for Tuesday’s “by invitation only” meeting, in what he described as a good turn-out. What he learned from the meeting, he said, was that, as it was “built on the backs of volunteers,” there is a strong attachment to the old building. However, others feel the building is inadequate.

The meeting was purposely not designed to develop a consensus. “We wanted to hear from people on moving versus staying,” he said. The purpose of the meeting, which was called by Membership Co-chairs Andree Bognar and Phyllis Evans, was to inform the board.

Bean is worried about the organization’s ability to meet the needs of the village’s seniors if they stay where they are.

“Senior centers used to be social clubs,” he said. Now they provide important services. But there is no room to expand to include those services in the current facility.

“We are trying to run a senior center in a building that wasn’t meant to be a senior center,” Bean said. “It‘s already shoe-horned in there.”

It’s easier to ask for services when they are in the same building, he said. “As it is now, some wait too long.” There is a resistance on the part of some to admit that they need a service when they have to go to another location to find it.

“The handwriting is on the wall,” Bean said. “We need to do something different.”

Contact: vhervey@ysnews.com