Planning Commission Regular Meeting/Work Session

James FeatherAt the most recent City Council meeting, which I attended for a couple of reasons, one of the members of the public was speaking and used some of the words similar to what Mr. Cunningham used talking about wants versus needs. But what sometimes I struggle with is perspective, what may be a want for some, maybe a need for others. There have been continued discussions recently on the Willard Sherwood Center project. Some view that as a want, a nice to have lovely new facility for a senior center and a community center. Some will see that as a want. expensive project. We are in partnership with the county on it. But on the other hand, if you look at Green Acres, and it's been limping along for a long time, you could argue that something

Matthew RiceI think that the strategic partnership with the county is something we cannot burn. We just can't burn that down. And Willard Sherwood is directly aligned with our vision. It's been a part of the discussion for years. and I understand it's got a significant price tag, Green Acres would be impossible to bring up to ADA standards and to continue housing a senior center and a daycare, both functions of which we need, and we can't bring that facility into compliance. The cost of bringing Green Acres into compliance is equal to the cost of building the Sherwood Center. so we given the context of that which has been known for 10 years the feasibility study for green acres determined that a long time ago and doing a u-turn on that particular project right

Paul CunninghamIn a perhaps unpopular way of looking at some of this, I took advantage of having children in the school system, I guess for eight years that we lived here in the city, which means that even though the school budget was significantly smaller at that point were a lot less somebody was subsidizing my children to go to school here in the city and I think that's true for all the people who have children in the city school system now but beyond that I'm gonna say that I spent 37 years paying for other people's children to go to public schools in the city because that That is a major priority for the city and a way we keep moving toward the future. But of that 37 years, I am hoping as Dr. Rice said, that having a senior center that

I could enjoy for my half of the population, the 70% of the population or more that does not have children in the school system that would appreciate a senior center and a community center and things like that to do other things should probably be an equal priority because when we look at the budget dollar as it's in the budget and 37 cents of every dollar goes to the education program and the remainder goes to the rest of all of the city's programs then it's got to be a balance where we meet everybody's needs. And I think we've done that well and we continue to when we advocate for new fire stations, when we advocate for new libraries, new police stations, additions to city hall, moving the

property yard and those kinds of things. But a senior center is one of those institutions that I would put in with the rest of those that is owed to the people in the city who pay the freight that keeps us going and who the council is going to have to put a greater burden on if they're going to balance a budget. So from that standpoint, yes, I support the senior center and will continue to. And it's a both, not an either-or from this kind of discussion as we're moving forward.

Betsy BriggsI mean, I do see the need for the senior center, and we have a lot of seniors in the city, and that, you know, we want to keep them here. We don't want them to move away.