FINALLY! The Northern Wake Senior Center staff has approval to begin moving into the center on East Holding Avenue. It will be December or January before the center is fully up and running, it appears.
At the Nov. 5 town board work session, David Williams, owner of Focus Design Builders which has the $3.9 million contract to renovate and enlarge the building and parking lot, said he expected to have a certificate of occupancy for the building by the end of Friday, Nov. 15. Well, it was close.
Mickey Rochelle, director of public facilities for the town, said this week about the CO, “Although they were very close and did not make the date we now have approval to move staff into the facility and will be doing so soon. We are letting Resources for Seniors (which provides the staff and programs) decide when to begin having class back at the center. They want to have time to schedule rooms and familiarize themselves with the building.”
The target completion date was May 1, 2019. Focus Design won the contract because it promised to complete the work within 269 days – nine months – when the other bidders’ numbers were 300 to 365 days.
The town board learned on Feb. 5 that the record amount of rain in 2018 – 36 days of rain that prevented construction when the average is 13 – means the end date had to be pushed back. Architect Matt Hale said construction would be complete on June 19 and the building will be handed over to the town on July 1, but that was premature.
It is one of the projects, with the Joyner Park Community Center, financed through the 2014 bond referendum.
The reconstruction adds 9,000 square feet plus renovations throughout the original center on East Holding Avenue. There will be a new entrance to the building, an expanded parking lot and a new parking lot entrance on the extension of Brooks Street which has finally connected Elm Avenue to East Holding. Among the new features will be an addition to the exercise room, a new roof and a new multipurpose room.
Until the staff has relocated from its temporary office in The Lodge of Wake Forest on South Main Street, the senior center classes and events will be in public buildings and churches across town.
All senior center members receive a detailed calendar of events from Resources for Seniors and they should be sure to check when the move into the renovated center will take place.
The center is owned by the Town of Wake Forest with programming and staffing provide by Resources for Seniors. Most programs are free for all. The center is open from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m.; the phone is 919-554-4111; the website with full information, including the full calendar, about the senior center and Resources for Seniors is available on computers, smart phones and tablets at www.Resourcesforseniors.com and http://www.wakeforestnc.gov/northern-wake-senior-center.aspx.
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