Thursday, October 9, 2008 9:55 PM CDT
LifeSpan Center construction complete
By DAVE FOPAY, Staff Writer
dfopay@jg-tc.com
LOXA — The Coles County Council on Aging will be in its new home in just a few weeks.
Construction of the council’s LifeSpan center was completed in early September, which was right on target, council Executive Director Dee Braden said.
The agency will relocate to the new facility on Oct. 31, which is on a Friday, and on the following Monday the separate Charleston and Mattoon senior centers will be closed and “we’ll be operating from here,” she said this week.
“It will be business as usual,” Braden said.
She said some people are concerned about getting to the center’s location, on Loxa Road north of Illinois Route 16, but the council’s Dial-A-Ride public transportation program will help with transportation for those who use the current Charleston and Mattoon centers.
Braden said Charleston and Mattoon residents age 60 and older will be able to take a Dial-A-Ride bus to the LifeSpan and back for a donation of their choosing instead of paying its regular fares.
“We felt we couldn’t charge anyone $2 each way,” she said.
The LifeSpan Center now features completed meeting rooms, offices, classrooms and more that are basically waiting on furniture and other final touches for the council’s 10-year project to be finished. While Braden said services to older adults will always be the first priority, the center is nonetheless seen as an “intergenerational facility.”
The center will be open to other agencies, programs and organizations, and that includes the use of two small offices that will be available for rent, Braden said. The council is already getting inquiries about the use of the center’s facilities, but a policy for that is still being developed.
“We want to get in here and get our core group of services functioning first,” Braden said.
Among the things to finalize before the move is establishing new telephone numbers for the council at the LifeSpan location. Braden said the current Charleston and Mattoon numbers can be used to reach the new facility for a few months after it opens, but then those lines will be disconnected.
Plans also call for gardens, a native prairie plant plot, recreational equipment, benches and other uses for the “green space” on the north side of the building. Braden said there should be a good start on that by June, when the center will have an open house in conjunction with the Council on Aging’s 35th anniversary.
There’s also a chance that the 25,000 square-foot, three-story building will also house the Coles County Emergency Management Agency, which currently operates in the basement of Charleston City Hall.
EMA Director Tom Watson said he’s working on an estimate for the Coles County Board’s Health and Safety Committee on how much it would cost to move the agency, but he said he doesn’t know when a decision might be made.
Still, Watson said there would be several advantages to having the agency there, including its central location in the county, room for use during an “extended situation,” parking and the chance to use the center’s volunteers if the agency needs help.
Braden said the center’s basement could provide space for the Emergency Management Agency, which could also use the Dial-A-Ride vehicles, stored in a garage next door, if they were needed in an emergency.
The council used government funding and private donations for the $7 million in construction costs, and Braden said there are plans to raise another $1.6 million to cover future operating costs.
The council rents the Charleston senior center from the Elks Lodge but owns the building where the Mattoon center is located. The council plans to sell that building to cover the administrative cost of conducting the fundraising campaign.
Contact Dave Fopay at dfopay@jg-tc.com or 348-5733.
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Natural light and chandelier light come together in the LIfespan Center's lobby atrium Saturday morning (October 7, 2008) at the soon-to-be open center near Loxa. (Photo by Ken Trevarthan).
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Harry Potter wrote on Oct 9, 2008 7:24 AM:
I'll bet this donation business doesn't last long, after a short time it will be business as usual. "