Macon residents give input on proposed senior center

MACON, Georgia (41NBC/WMGT) – Macon-Bibb County seniors are getting an opportunity to give their input on a new senior center in the county.

One representative from an Atlanta-based architecture group says while it’s a challenge to meet everyone’s request, he’s on a mission to draw up the best center possible.

There’s progress happening at the senior center, maybe not at the center on Adams Street, but people are chiming in on plans for a “perfect” center near Central City Park.

There was a crowded room of nearly 50 seniors, a sea of hand shot with every suggestion.

“This group really came to a lot of good bit of consensus on just about every that we put in front of them,” Bruce Morris, an architect with Sizemore Group Architects.

One by one, people voiced their opinions and concerns about the new center, except for Betty Jones who says she wanted it all.

“It’d be alright wherever we are,” Jones laughed.

When she’s at the current center she does everything she can.

“We do a lot of puzzles and stuff like that. We play bingo, you know, we go on field trips trip . It’s just and enjoyable day when I can get out,” Jones says.

From a tradition building to a modern one, one with spaces for a gym, arts and crafts, and possibly a pool – Morris says he’ll try to please as many people as he can.

“With that we can go back to our civil engineer, our master planning consultant, and work with them to determine how big of a site we need to provide to meet the needs that have been expressed at today’s meeting,” he says.

With every vote, came a tally — determining factor on where the center will be located.

“We have a couple of different parcels of property down at the park that we’re looking at and so this is a step to determine how big of a building it’s going to need to be,” Morris says.

Architect reps later met again with a different group of seniors in north Macon for their suggestions. Plans are to come back in the next two weeks with a rough idea of what the center will have, get more input, then create a finalized plan to present to Macon-Bibb commissioners.