Maumelle senior center gets OK

Aldermen unanimous in support for new $4.61M facility

The Maumelle City Council gave the go-ahead Monday night for a new Senior Wellness Center to be built on city property next to Lake Willastein.

City aldermen voted 8-0 to grant a conditional use permit for the construction and operation of the senior center. It will be just northwest of the intersection of Odom Boulevard South and Club Manor Drive and behind a new city fire station already under construction.

The Maumelle Senior Wellness Center provides educational, social and recreational programs and activities for residents 50 years of age and older.

Maumelle voters gave their approval for a $4.61 million senior center in November as part of a three-issue bond package. The current senior center is below City Hall in the two-level municipal complex overlooking Lake Valencia. Another part of that bond issue was for $2.72 million to renovate City Hall.

"The seniors are excited," Nicole Heaps, the city's Senior Services director, said after the vote. "When we moved here [in 2007] the plans showed an upstairs and a downstairs portion. We didn't need that space then. We need more space now. A lot of our classes fill up."

Plans for the new center show more than 17,00o square feet on one level, David Porter, the project's architect, told the City Council. Preliminary plans at the time of the bond vote in November were for about a 14,000-square-foot building and a purchase of about 2 acres. The current center has 7,200 square feet, Heaps said.

Construction is proposed to start in December, Heaps said, and take 10 to 11 months.

The City Council decided in May 2014 to purchase 6 acres next to Lake Willastein, mainly for the new fire station. Placing the senior center there let the city avoid having to locate and purchase a suitable site.

"If there is excess money, that will go back to retire the debt of the bond," Mayor Mike Watson said.

Porter said a goal in the new center's design was to "preserve the green space behind the center" that will include a walking path connecting to existing trails around the lake. There will be 83 parking spaces, he said.

"We need between 62 and 70 parking spaces, so what we looked at was for our growth," Heaps said. "We need every spot we're getting."

What's not clear is whether the center will have a water aerobics pool. Alderman Ken Saunders asked that question about such "a rumor" to Porter.

"A pool is in the plan," Porter said. "It will be for aerobics, an exercise pool, not a lap pool."

Heaps said afterward, though, that including a pool is still a question mark as final plans and costs are determined.

"All the mechanical room, the showers, the locker rooms, everything that would go along with a pool, that's where the extra square footage comes in," Heaps said.

Metro on 10/06/2015

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