Long and winding road, winding down

The seniors who gather at the Macon-Bibb County Senior Center are finally nearing the end of their long ordeal. While not over, their attempt to get a new senior center is entering its last phases. Their ordeal, started with the passage of the 2012 SPLOST with the help of votes from seniors on the promise they would get a new center. But here we are five years down the road and no center, yet. The delay should be a lesson in how a SPLOST really works and also a lesson in perseverance — and something else that comes with being a senior — they weren’t going to accept just anything.

County officials found that out early in the process when they thought they had found the perfect location for the new center at the Gilead complex on Rocky Creek Road in Bloomfield. The seniors didn’t waste any time shooting holes in that location and they shot several other sites down, too. Those delays cost time — and money — about $400,000 as plans were drawn up only to be tossed in the garbage.

But now the locaton has been settled, just inside Central City Park, and bids should be going out soon. And once returned, the county — and the seniors will know about how much the new center will cost. No matter the cost, there’s only $2.3 million left for the project including SPLOST money and proceeds from the sale of the present center location on Adams Street.

As anyone could have imagined, the seniors’ wish list is longer than the county’s bank account. And while there are several options on the table to produce more money for the project, such as a grant applied for by the Middle Georgia Regional Commission that, if successful, would cover up to a third of the center’s construction costs, to the county already having the center as a recipient of funds from the 2018 SPLOST. The site of the new center and its design will allow for future expansion that will probably be needed as more Baby Boomers enter senior status.

It’s also understandable the seniors want the amenities that they want now. They have lived long enough to know that another day is neither promised or guaranteed.

This story was originally published April 5, 2017 at 9:00 PM with the headline "Long and winding road, winding down."