Talks are ongoing about building a new senior center on the YMCA campus — it would be an expansion to the current facility — though everything is still in the early stages.
Senior Community Center of Owensboro-Daviess County Executive Director Becky Barnhart said they are currently waiting for the YMCA to complete a memorandum of agreement to move on with the developments and plans for the partnership and building.
Barnhart said so far there are only some preliminary schematics of the building.
“It’s going to be a newer facility for us. It would be adding on to the YMCA building and then creating space for a senior center,” Barnhart said.
The current senior center was built in 1936 as an elementary school before they acquired it in 1986. Barnhart said there is a bit of difficulty running the building — especially when there hasn’t been a major renovation in more than 20 years.
There was a renovation in the 1980s when the HVAC and windows were updated, but Barnhart said it’s “still an old building and it’s not cheap to operate.” So, the new building will be beneficial on an operational level.
However, she said the move would cost them rental income. Right now, the center rents out space for the Audubon Area Community Service, while other places rent out the kitchen in the basement.
“We would lose that rental income but our utilities would be would be less,” Barnhart said. “…We would still come out in a deficit with the rental income if everything stays the same.”
Barnhart said the center is funded by federal and state funding through the Older Americans Act. The county has already committed $2 million to a project replacing the center, and city officials have also said they would do what they can to help.
She said ultimately the next step would be to determine how much money the center can raise for the project, but that’s only relevant if the YMCA approves the memorandum presented to them.
