Royal Oak senior center closed for renovations

ROYAL OAK — The Royal Oak Leo Mahany/Harold Meininger Senior Center is now closed for the start of renovations and repairs.

On June 23, the Royal Oak City Commission approved a $564,000 renovation project that will fund a number of essential improvements including renovated bathrooms, new flooring, ceiling tiles and paint throughout. The money will also cover a new generator and electrical updates.

Royal Oak’s architect, Kreiger Klatt Architects, reviewed bids and interviewed the three low bidders on the project. Krieger Klatt recommended Usztan LLC to perform the work.

According to Kevin Yee, director of public services, who spoke during the meeting, the renovations should be completed by Aug. 18, when the senior center will reopen prior to preschool beginning on Sept. 2.

All staff of the senior center have been relocated to the Royal Oak Public Library, 222 E. 11 Mile Road, until the reopening.

According to romi.gov, transportation and travel will continue as usual, as well as the older adult support programs such as the Royal Oak Senior Essential Services and Adjacent Generational Exchange counseling.

For those registered for a program, staff of the senior center will be in touch to update on how that will be handled. The staff, according to romi.gov, is working to find alternative locations for programs to minimize the impact on services.

City Commissioner Brandon Kolo voiced concern about the rescheduling and canceling of activities.

“I looked at the Senior Times, which is a great resource, and I counted 86 activities in July alone, and I think I saw accommodations for about 11 of them so far, so do we have a list or a spreadsheet somewhere of what activities we  have that are still planned and that are canceled,  that relocated, and where they are going?” he said.

“We do have everything that’s active right now we have on the front of our software and we are going through every single one of them including all of the people that have already bought lunches for July, we are going through and calling every single one of them,” Coordinator of Senior Citizens Activities Yolanda Botello McClain said. “Some of our Lunch and Learn, things like that, we will reschedule in the fall and the winter. Those presentations have told us they will come back and reschedule.”

Kolo was concerned about the preparedness of the senior center, questioning why rescheduling and calling for programs had not been done during the weeks leading up to this construction, considering this project has been in the works for three years.

“This is an amazing renovation, there’s a $500,000 investment going to the senior center to light it up and to give it a refresh,” he said. “This is a huge win for the community that I don’t think we are executing well.”

Joe Gachicoch, city manager, said he thinks this is a good investment for the community, but agreed with Kolo.

“Big picture, I think this is a great investment. In 42 days from now, I’m glad that it will be ready to reopen in time for preschool, but I take the point that there are coordination and communication gaps and project management needs, specifically with anticipating needs, that can be improved,” he said.

Mayor Michael Fournier said that he thinks the senior center staff did plan accordingly, but because of the quick turnaround, they had to make fast adjustments.

“It sounds like there were some rough plans in place. We were warning people when they signed up (for programs) that we were going to have construction this summer, so I think some of the pre-planning was very good,” he said.

At the end of the discussion, the commission voted unanimously to award the senior center with $564,000.