City Council closer to reaching agreement on senior center move

From charges for after-hours programs to the maintenance of pool tables, details of the Spokane Valley Senior Center’s journey to the new Centerplace building moved closer to adoption at the City Council meeting Tuesday night.

After a year of meetings, a committee on the Senior Center presented its findings to the council, which asked that a written agreement be drawn up between the city and the Spokane Valley Senior Citizens Association.

“They were the important issues that came up in the meetings, so we tried to be careful in spelling them out exactly,” said Mike Jackson, city parks director.

The association presently rents the Senior Center building near Valley Mission Park from the city for $12,000 a year.

When the city proposed moving the seniors’ gathering place to the new community center, many of the regulars feared the city would take over control of its activities from the SVSCA.

“I think we pretty well worked through it,” Councilman Gary Schimmels said of the pending agreement.

The city hired a staff member to coordinate senior activities.

But the seniors association will have an office at Centerplace and will continue to organize the senior programs that now take place at the Mission Park location.

The SVSCA will no longer be charged the $12,000 for rent when it moves into Centerplace, and it would have non-exclusive use of much of the south wing of Centerplace between 8 a.m. and 4 p.m., Mondays through Fridays.

The senior organization could reserve rooms for free on evenings and weekends for activities that are open to everyone and that the parks departments deems a benefit to the community.

“All they need to do is let us know,” Jackson said.

But space for fund-raisers and other private events would have to be rented for the same fees charged to other groups.

The association would keep revenue from its programs, while the city would receive income from renting the Senior Center space in the evenings.

“We certainly won’t intermingle funds there,” Schimmels said.