Monday, December 20, 1999
Senior center needs $23,000
Renovations almost done
BY PATRICK CROWLEY
The Cincinnati Enquirer
COVINGTON — A major renovation of the Covington senior citizen center is close to being finished but not paid for.
Another $23,000 is needed for the $450,000 project. But Senior Services of Northern Kentucky isn't sure where it will come up with the extra money, director Ellen Cook said last week.
“The work will be completed in just a few weeks because we have contracts with our contractors,” Ms. Cook said. “But we still are going to come up short in paying off the project, so we need to find some additional funding.”
The nearly 70-year-old building was renovated because it was not compatible with the Americans With Disabilities Act, or ADA, and needed some general repairs and maintenance.
“I was giving a tour to Kevin Canafax of the Fidelity (Investments) Foundation and a pipe burst,” Ms. Cook said.
Fidelity, which operates its Midwest regional headquarters in Covington, contributed $50,000 to the project.
“We thought everything was going to come in on budget, but once the work started we found that all the electricity and all the plumbing had to be replaced,” Ms. Cook said.
Ms. Cook will ask the Kenton County Fiscal Court for $23,000 at its Tuesdaymeeting.
Deputy County Judge-executive Scott Kimmich said the court has not decided if it can afford to give the money to the center.
“We're looking at a tight budget,” Mr. Kimmich said Friday. “We're not sure if we can afford any more right now.”
The county, which owns the building, has already spent $55,252 on the renovation.
Other contributors are:
• City of Covington, $153,053.
• The Kroger Co., $1,000.
• The Thomas Emery Memorial Foundation, $10,000.
• Toyota, $5,000;
• Starkist Foundation, $1,000.
• Comair, $1,000.
• Greater Cincinnati Foundation, $25,000.
• Firstar Bank, $3,000.
• James Graham Brown Foundation, $50,000.
• Andrew Piaskowy, $27,611.
• PacifiCare, $10,000.
Ms. Cook said all the contributions are appreciated. But if the fiscal court does not come up with the final $23,000, “we'll have to go back to the business community.”
The center, on West Fifth Street across from the new federal courthouse, serves hundreds of area senior citizens every day through activities, health screenings and by offering information about services and issues that involve senior citizens.
Activities include exercise classes; health and nutrition education; dances; quilting and sewing groups; art and ceramics classes; discussion groups; bingo; access to the Internet; and card games.
“This is a place where a lot of people come to socialize,” Ms. Cook said.
About 100 meals are prepared at the center each weekday for the Meals on Wheels program. Volunteers deliver the hot lunches to seniors in the area.
Another 30 to 40 seniors eat lunch at the center each day.
“For many of them, it's the only decent, hot meal they eat all day,” Ms. Cook said.
Outreach workers are also on staff at the center to help seniors find and apply for social services, process insurance forms “and navigate the maze of private or government bureaucracy, paperwork and regulations they encounter,” Ms. Cook said.
“Really, this is the place to come and get an introduction and help when people are senior citizens,” she said.
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