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New senior center will expand weekend schedule

Posted on April 11, 2007 by Staff

By Susan Dickson
Staff Writer

When it opens in less than three weeks, the new Robert and Pearl Seymour Senior Center will have more than just more space.

The Board of County Commissioners on Tuesday approved staff positions for the new Seymour Center for seniors in Chapel Hill, enabling the center to provide expanded evening and weekend services when it opens May 1.

The 25,000-square-foot center, which is located on Homestead Road, will serve seniors 55 to 105. It replaces the Chapel Hill Senior Center on South Elliott Road and the Northside Senior Center on Caldwell Street.

Jerry Passmore, director of the Orange County Department on Aging, said the opening of the center is important for seniors in the county. His department projects the county population over age 60 will increase by more than 70 percent by 2020.

Passmore said the center will be open from 8:00 a.m. to 9:30 p.m. Monday through Thursday, 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Friday and 8 a.m. to 2 p.m. on Saturday.

According to Passmore, the center will focus on offering a huge variety of services, making the center “quite different from other centers around the state.”

Janice Tyler, county senior centers administrator, said the new center will offer expanded fitness classes, such as aerobics, Pilates and strength training. In addition, seniors will be able to have therapeutic massage, physical function assessments and a variety of health screenings through the centerÕs health and wellness center.

Tyler said the center will also offer senior and care-giving counseling, as well as private consultations to help seniors plan for their personal care as they age. Psycho-educational support groups for dementia, cancer, heart disease and other ailments also will be available.
“Many people see us as the fun-and-games place,” she said, “but as you can see, we have many other services to offer.”

The center will not lack recreation and leisure opportunities, however, with classes including scrapbooking, golf, dancing and table tennis, as well as special-interest clubs, such as a writers discussion group and a lacemakers club.

Tyler said the center will also connect seniors to volunteer opportunities with more than 100 nonprofit organizations throughout the county, and that it will also coordinate with more than 50 community organizations to offer services to seniors.

“We don’t try to do everything on our own,” she said. “We link up with many community partners.”

Although the center will offer an extensive variety of programs, Tyler said she hopes seniors will feel that they can just “drop in” to the center without participating in a particular program.

The board approved three staff positions for the center, including a part-time facility operator for evening and weekend hours, an office assistant and a public-works custodian, in addition to a supplemental custodial-services contract with Orange Enterprises and Public Works. The staff also will provide custodial services at the Southern Human Services Center, which is located behind the senior center.

In other county business, the board voted 4-1 to approve a potential public/private partnership for the proposed West Ten Soccer Complex in Efland. County staff will continue soliciting sponsorship in exchange for naming rights for the park.

Sports Endeavors, a mail-order sports-equipment retail company based in Hillsborough, has offered $300,000 to fund the project in exchange for naming rights.

Commissioner Alice Gordon opposed the partnership, citing unanswered questions regarding the project. Gordon questioned whether the facility would be either recreational or economical, adding that, “Even if you say that there’s six soccer fields needed at West Ten, it doesn’t mean you need bleachers, a scoreboard and a concessions stand.”

The board also voted to support a senate bill by Sen. Bob Atwater (D-Chatham, Durham) that would enable North Carolina counties to impose a 1 percent transfer tax on real estate transactions to help offset the cost of growth.

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