Senior center shows age

City leaders hope to build new facility to replace the 1940s-era building, but funding may be problem.It’s a challenging proposition in a challenging space.

“I really try to motivate everyone to join,” instructor René Burton said of the seniors aerobics class she regularly lead at the senior center. Besides getting older people interested in regular exercise, Burton said one of her greatest challenges is dealing with the makeshift dance studio at the Michael Rodgers Senior Center at 17th Street and Orange Avenue in downtown Huntington Beach.

“We’re totally squeezed in here,” she said. “There’s no air, no facilities, the flooring is bad and I have to shout because we have no sound system. These seniors are fabulous and they deserve something fabulous.”

A cafeteria isn’t the most conducive place for a yoga class, but with space at a premium, Burton and other instructors are forced to make due with what they’re given.

That may all change soon: A consultant group has been hired by the city to evaluate the needs of Huntington Beach’s growing senior community and conceptualize a new facility, although it remains unclear how the city would pay for it.

In the meantime, Huntington Beach’s oldest residents will continue to be squeezed into a World War II-era Air Force barracks.

After the war, the building was converted into the parks and recreation department offices before becoming the Michael Rodgers Senior Center in 1984. In the past 20 years, maintenance crews have done their best to keep the building intact, but myriad structural problems keep the center from expanding its services to meet the needs of the growing populace.

A 50-year-old plumbing system prevents any type of cooking classes, supervisor Randy Pesqueira said. Then there are the bad acoustics, the decades-old electronic equipment and the paper-thin walls next to one of downtown’s busiest thoroughfares.

“Sometimes it feels like we’re sitting on the edge of a freeway,” Pesqueira said.

The biggest problem at the center, Recreation Coordinator Chris Cole said, was the lack of space.

“This facility just isn’t equipped for the kind of services we would like to offer,” he said. Karate classes are taught in small offices on tiled floors, performances are on a makeshift stage in the cafeteria and meetings and clubs are squeezed into any room available.

“There’s nothing like a Tuesday night when we have a martialarts classes, a tap-dancing lesson and an American Legion meeting all going on at the same time,” Pesqueira said. “It gets pretty loud in here.”

Pesqueira and others are hopeful that a new senior center will include plenty of spaces for wellness activities, as well as rooms for classes and additional office space. The consulting group hired to evaluate the new senior center is expected to submit its report in early spring and identify possible sites for a new senior center.

An obvious deterrent will be cost, said Councilwoman Cathy Green, an active advocate for a new senior center. The center’s current space is leased from Chevron for $1 a year, and there will be considerable pressure to build the new center on city property. Besides land issues, capital costs could be in the tens of millions of dollars, Green estimated.

“I’m desperately looking for grants,” Green said. “Funds from the feds or the states, wherever there is money available.”

Pesqueira said he’s optimistic that the center would be able to raise money to cover some of its costs by charging for facilities rentals and classes.

“Boomers are used to paying for those things, so it wouldn’t be outrageous,” he said.

Without a new facility, it will be difficult to appeal to the oldest baby boomers, who are now aging into their 60s. In the coming decades, the United States is going to be faced with an increasingly aging population, and the city needs to prepare for that, Pesqueira said. By offering new lunch options, exercise classes and health awareness programs, the senior center can broaden its base and bring in the dozens of boomers

“Boomers helped facilitate a lot of change in their generation, so naturally they are going to change the face of aging,” he said.

QUESTION

Is enough attention and money being directed to the city’s senior population? Call our Readers Hotline at (714) 966-4691 or send e-mail to hbindependent@ latimes.com. Please spell your name and include your hometown and phone number for verification purposes.20060112iswk5gncDOUGLAS ZIMMERMAN / INDEPENDENT(LA)Even the signs at the senior center are showing wear. The city has hired consultants to plan for a new facility. 20060112iswk4wncPHOTOS BY DOUGLAS ZIMMERMAN / INDEPENDENT(LA)René Burton, left, leads an exercise class at the Rodgers Senior Center in Huntington Beach. Many think the 1940s-era building is in need of repair or replacement. 20060112iswk5hnc(LA)Pat Masino cuts a chocolate cake to be served with lunch at the Rodgers Senior Center. The outdated kitchen does not have many modern conveniences, such as a dishwasher.