New electricity, new plumbing, new kitchen, new bingo board and sound system.
Add to that new noise-attenutating ceiling-borne panels that look like flying sculptures.
Throw in new flooring, windows, lights, furniture, carpeting, and a paint job of such bright wall colors that Margie Staggers, who is partially blind, can take delight in them.
That was all on display Tuesday morning as city officials and elderly advocates joined nearly 100 seniors to celebrate the “grand reopening” of the Atwater Senior Center in Fair Haven.
Staggers, who has been coming to the Atwater center for six years.
Over the past two years, Atwater, the Dixwell/Newhallville Senior Center at 255 Goffe St. and the East Shore Senior Center at 411 Townsend all have had makeovers. Atwater, the busiest of the three sites, in the only city-owned building, represents the biggest investment.
All the funds came from capital budgets over the past two years. All the work, $160,000 in total, has been completed on budget and on time, said William MacMullen, the director of the city’s capital projects.
Delia Diaz and Celestino Cordova enjoy the new digs.
Likening a building getting older to a person in the same process, MacMullen said, “It’s fun taking care of old places, recycling them. You go to the doctor and get a check-up. The doctor, [aka] the mayor, said, ‘This is what we need to do: The eyes, [new] windows; breathing, a new exhaust system; new furniture in case you get creaky.’”
Working closely with MacMullen was city Elderly Services Director Migdalia Castro, who proudly gave a tour of the new kitchen, which now includes a warming table that sits beneath two old blackboards that MacMullen uncovered.
Playing billiards in the renovated Gus Cuomo room, named for the late longtime center president.
When State Sen. Martin Looney was a little boy, he played basketball in the building, which was then known as the Atwater Recreation Center, he said in his celebratory remarks. The building also functioned as an elementary school. It features a WPA-era mural, one of the city’s public art treasures.
Arte Is Moving In
Perhaps for that reason, the grand reopening also was the occasion for Arte, Inc, the local Latino cultural organization on nearby Grand Avenue, to announce that it is formally moving into the senior center building.
Arte co-founder David Greco said art programs have begun there. He said he looks forward to launching inter-generational art and other projects between the center’s seniors and the young people who for more than a decade have been enrolled in Arte programs.
“The seniors are [generally] here in the morning hours and go home at 2:30, and then the kids come,” said Greco.
In the renovated kitchen with new steam table, repurposed school blackboards, lunch server Shania Velazquez.
The idea is to have the seniors stay longer and launch, for example, a project pairing a senior and a young person to make a video interview of each other that might lead to an exhibition of the resulting materials.
Castro said she is leaving many of the walls of the new spaces — a quiet library room and a fitness room, among others – empty for the future hanging of Arte-generated works.
MacMullen and Castro.
Greco said a memorandum of understanding has been signed between Arte and the city, which owns the building, so that the group moves in and provides programming in lieu of formal rent.
Elderly activist Celestino Cordova pronounced the re-do magnificent. His friend Delia Diaz agreed, saying she plans to come every day.
Bright new awnings, part of the renovation.
All the centers are open from 8:30 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. Atwater registers about 100 daily participants, somewhat more than Dixwell, and twice the number at the East Shore Center. With the arrival of Arte as the center’s new live-in partner, Castro said, she anticipates many more people will come.
During the two-year renovation, seniors temporarily had to use other sites. Lunch and other activities were never closed down. Still remaining to be done are a few more projects at Atwater, including the installation of several more walls of windows and theater lights on the center’s small stage with the famous WPA mural as backdrop. Those jobs are all covered by the current city budget, and will be enhanced by new trees and other plantings, including flower gardens, said city parks and rec chief Becky Bombero
Bombero and Castro flank La Voz publisher Norma Rodriguez, who directed Atwater for 20 years.
Castro’s wish list for the near future includes chimney repair and pointing at Atwater; restoration of the porch at the East Shore Center, and installation of an accordion wall at the Dixwell/Newhallville Center, which will significantly increase the space there, said MacMullen.
That all adds up to $60,000, which is in the proposed new capital budget about to be debated by the Board of Alders.
A formal celebration of the Dixwell center’s new digs is scheduled for 10:30 a.m. Wednesday at Dixwell and Thursday at East Shore.
Great work by all! So happy that we're taking care of these important spaces for our Elders.