GROUNDBREAKING … County Administrator Vond Hall, Senior Center Director Sheri Rychener, Fulton County Commissioner Jon Rupp, Fulton County Commissioner Jeff Rupp, and Fulton County Commissioner Joe Short stand on the land where the new Fulton County Senior Center will be built. The group stands together to celebrate a groundbreaking for the project as construction gets underway behind them. (PHOTO BY JACOB KESSLER, STAFF)
By: Jacob Kessler
A Groundbreaking Ceremony took place for the new Fulton County Senior Center on Tuesday, May 9th.
The new Senior Center is currently under construction beside the Fulton County Health Center campus, behind the Fulton County Behavioral Health Clinic and beside the DaVita Dialysis Center in Wauseon.
The construction is projected to be finished within one year from now with construction efforts beginning the week before.
According to Senior Center Director Sheri Rychener, the new building will be much better for the community than the current one that the center resides in now.
“I think that this has been a long time coming. We have had to be creative in our current facility in order to make our operations work on a daily basis.”
“Having everyone on one floor will be better for everyone and will allow us all to better work as a team. It also gives us the room we need to grow,” said Rychener.
By being only a single story, each room will be more accessible to both staff members and visitors. Being larger in size than the current building will also allow the center to hold its larger events in house, rather than having to hold them off site as in the past.
The food program will also be able to keep up better with its current production and will be in a better position to grow as needed.
The center currently serves 500-600 seniors daily through its meal program, with another 200-300 seniors being served in other ways.
Other services offered by the center include exercise programs, line dancing and Tai Chi, chair yoga, pickle ball, choir, art classes, educational series and walks of all kinds.
The new senior center will be in a much better spot to continue to help those seniors who currently use it, as well as those who will need to use its services in the future.
Jacob can be reached at jacob@thevillagereporter.com