The Seymour Community Center soon will reopen for activities and programming for senior citizens after being closed for more than a year due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
But the exact date of when that will happen is not yet known as the parks department may have to hire a new staff member to run the senior center, which is located at 107 S. Chestnut St. in downtown Seymour.
Since last year, the center only has been available for a limited number of private rentals for small gatherings, such as birthday parties, baby showers and family reunions.
Juergens
Mayor Matt Nicholson reminded parks board members during a meeting Monday they had decided to revisit the issue of senior programming this month.
The board ended up voting 3-2 in favor of opening the center back up again for seniors to use to socialize, eat lunch and play games.
Board President Monica Boyer and member Tim Ferret cast the dissenting votes.
“I’m personally not interested in resuming that,” Boyer said.
Since Jackson County has moved back into the orange warning level for community spread of COVID-19, she said she didn’t feel it would be a responsible action for the board to take at this time.
“Encouraging senior programming to me seems questionable,” she said. “Just last week, we were the worst in the state (for COVID), so is that really the time to be resuming senior programming?”
Ferret agreed, saying the county’s positivity rate was not stable enough to resume activities for that demographic.
Board member Kendra Zumhingst said she was indifferent but felt that it might be safe enough now for seniors to return.
“The number of COVID cases that we are having is a higher population of younger people, meaning that the people who are older in that demographic have been vaccinated,” she said.
Board member Bethany Rust said the decision should be based on what the people who use the center want.
“Leave it up to the people. If they are requesting to do things, I think we should allow that to happen,” she said. “I feel we should go on demand. If people are requesting and are ready to get back in it, I don’t know that it’s ultimately up to us to stop them.”
Tonya Disque, administrative assistant for the parks department, said the city has received several calls recently about when senior programming would resume.
By not reopening to everyone, Justin Kiel, parks program director, said he feels like the department is “picking on seniors.”
Art Juergens, who has been on the parks board the longest, said he realizes safety is involved, but he isn’t against reopening the center for seniors to use.
“We’ve got to get back to as much normal as we can,” he said.
Another issue that must be resolved is finding out if the employee who previously ran the senior center plans to return.
Disque said it’s her understanding the employee has accepted another job.
“We’re waiting to see if she’s staying or not,” Disque said. “But we can’t bring her back and tell her to come back until we know if we can start the programming back up.”
If the employee doesn’t return, Chad Keithley, parks operations director, said the city will have to post the position and fill it before the center can officially reopen.