Residents voice their concerns about Bibb County Senior Citizens Center

“I think this was a major milestone for us,” says Leroy Thomas.

Thomas is the president of the Golden Group. Members of the group attended the Macon-Bibb County Commissioners meeting on Tuesday.

“We have been fighting not to go to Bloomfield,” added Thomas.

Prospective companies put in bids to build a new senior citizen center or to renovate an existing building.

Macon-Bibb County has two million dollars and it is expecting to sell the existing Senior Citizens Center for $700,000, according to Macon-Bibb District 3 Commissioner Elaine Lucas.  Lucas says the commission does not know how much it will cost to build the senior citizen center in Central City Park.

But she added the county owns the property and all of the facilities at the park, therefore she believes the county will save more money building the center in the park.

At times, the meeting became a heated debate on where to build the center and the group claims it did not provide any input about the new center.

“We think that the Central City Park location is a better location for seniors,” he continued.

Lucas is fighting for a comprise. She suggested merging the Bloomfield plans with building the senior center in Central City Park.

“We heard from a very vocal group of people who were obviously interested in seeing that we follow through on a promise of putting in place a Senior Citizen Center,” said Lucas.

Other commissioners argued the Bloomfield site was the ideal location because there were fewer reports of crime.

Gwendolyn Strong, another Golden Group member, feels that proposed site was inconvenient for the county’s elderly residents.

“It’s too far out, the seniors are not close to the hospital, we have seniors over 100-years-old down at Adams Street and we need to be closer to their doctor’s office and the hospital,” explained Strong.

Members of the Golden Group say they want the center to be built specifically for their needs and they do not want to share activities or amenities with children and teenagers.