Public Invited to City Meeting on Youth, Senior Programs

The Albany community is invited to the April 11 meeting of the city's Parks and Recreation Commission to discuss reorganization of the facilities that serve seniors and after-school programs for teens and for elementary school students.

City staff is proposing a kind of civic musical chairs in which the after-school teen program would move from its current location at the Memorial Park facility to a vacant city-owned house next door to the Senior Center on Masonic Avenue.

This would allow the after-school program for grades 1-5, which has a waiting list of up to 30 families, to expand to Memorial Park and possibly consider allowing kindergartners to enroll as well, according to a staff report on the proposal. The report is attached to this article.

It would also allow an expansion of senior services. The teen program – which attracts fewer than a dozen teens, chiefly sixth graders from Albany Middle School – would use the house next to the Senior Center on weekday afternoons, and the structure could be used for expanded senior programs at other times, the staff report says.

The city purchased the house with the intent of tearing it down to allow for a $2.4 million expansion of the Senior Center, but hoped-for grant funding didn't come through, and it appears that securing the necessary funds will be unlikely for "several more years," the report says.

So the renovation of the house offers a money-saving interim solution for meeting several needs, according to staff.

"By expanding programs and facilities as proposed, it is projected that revenue will increase by $135,000; however, expenses will only increase by $35,000," the report says. "By investing $79,000 into the Senior Center House the City not only expands much needed services, but also makes a net of $100,000 per year more in revenue, thus, decreasing the amount the General Fund subsidizes these three programs."

The Friendship Club after-school program for first-through-fifth grades is currently full with 65 students at its home at Ocean View Park. By creating a second, "satellite" facility for the program at Memorial Park, it could serve up to 50 more students, the staff report says.

Following feedback from the public and the Parks and Recreation Commission, the City Council is expected to consider the proposal at an upcoming meeting on April 15, May 6 or June 3, with the anticipated renovation of house beginning in June, according to the staff report. The after-school teen program relocation and the opening of satellite Friendship Club would come at the beginning of school in late August.

The April 11 Parks and Recreation Commission will be held in the City Council chambers beginning at 7 p.m.

Questions and comments can be sent to Penelope Leach at pleach@albanyca.org.

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