It’s not hard to imagine throngs of kids roaming the narrow hallways of the Mount Vernon Senior Center’s building in its past life as an elementary school.
A small gift shop, now packed with brightly colored handmade knickknacks, may have once served as a principal’s office. A lounge with comfy chairs and bookshelves might have been a kindergarten classroom. Toilets in the bathrooms near the front desk are equipped with risers as the seats hover awkwardly close to the ground for most adults.
“If you’re 3 feet high, then you use the first one,” senior center board president Gerry Douglas joked of the one toilet in the women’s bathroom with no modifications.
Today, the center is a hub of activity for the more than 2,000 people per month who take advantage of its senior programming or attend meetings in the facility after hours. Some of the seniors who use those services attended school in the building as children.
But at this point, senior center leaders and attendees say, the county-owned facility has outlived its usefulness. Built in 1937, the building badly needs repairs and upgrades, leaders said. At least 40% of the siding is cracked and the building has sewer issues, said Ken Hansen, county director of Facilities Management.
That, and it’s too small. Due to limited kitchen capacity, the center has had to outsource some of its Meals on Wheels routes to the Burlington Senior Center.
The county has acknowledged the reality that something has to give. Last week, more than a dozen senior center volunteers and board members gathered for a public meeting with Skagit County staff and commissioners to discuss future plans for the center.
Those plans could include housing on the upper floors of a new building on the site, as suggested by a consultant the county hired last year — an idea some at the meeting responded to with skepticism.
A busy hub for seniors
Geraldine Koch’s first visit to the Mount Vernon center began with a misunderstanding. She was headed for an arts and crafts class, but took a wrong turn and found herself in a Cocaine Anonymous meeting.
“They were just so kind and so accommodating and so accepting, and they would let me cry and not judge,” she said, “that I just kept going back.”
The senior center’s February calendar shows a wide range of offerings, including Tai Chi, chess and improv.
“I’ve never seen a community service used more than this place,” volunteer Christina Mendlik, 42, said. “It’s pretty amazing.”
As valuable as the center’s activities are, attendees said the building is reaching a breaking point.
“I love the people when I come into the Mount Vernon Senior Center, it’s very warm and friendly,” one person said at the meeting. “But the place is depressing.”
Even a passing glance at the building reveals wear and tear, as its siding and window frames are scuffed and cracked. Inside, most rooms are small. A table piled with giveaway items — like insoles, books, magazines and mugs — is relegated to the hallway. The technology area, where people come for help with devices, is a narrow space with four computer monitors lined up against windows.
A volunteer who counsels seniors on their health insurance told commissioners the Mount Vernon center has no private space where he can talk to people about their medical needs.
As far as Douglas is concerned, the county has “been putting this off for years.”
Funding challenges
This isn’t the first effort to figure out a plan for the senior center.
At one point, county and city staff considered housing the senior center in the Mount Vernon Library Commons building, which opened in October, county spokesperson Jennifer Rogers wrote in an email. Eventually, they decided against it because of space, access and parking challenges.
“We have been looking for funding and a better solution for the senior center for several years,” she wrote. “Part of how the commissioners make decisions to move forward with large projects is the availability of funding, and unfortunately senior centers do not have a dedicated source of funding for operations.”
The center is mostly funded by the county, she wrote. This year, the senior center is a nearly $1.8 million line item on the county budget.
One potential solution to the funding issue? Housing.
Last year, a consultant for the county identified the senior center as “a top location” for affordable housing, Rogers wrote. The property has the capacity for an estimated 40–60 housing units if it were developed as a mixed-use facility.
At last week’s meeting, Commissioner Lisa Janicki suggested incorporating housing in a building plan would be appealing to the city and therefore critical for getting city funds for the project. The housing could be reserved for seniors, she said.
Some weren’t happy with that idea. Koch, 74, recounted how another senior center she used to frequent turned into a mixed-use facility. Seniors were pushed aside afterward, she said, noting there wasn’t enough parking for both apartments and senior programming.
Mount Vernon budgeted more than $65,000 for the senior center this year, Mount Vernon Mayor Peter Donovan wrote in an email. Like Janicki, he noted combining housing with a new senior center could be a path to getting the project done.
“When senior housing is added to the facility conversation, a number of state and federal funding opportunities are opened up for local governments,” Donovan wrote.
Senior center leaders aren’t waiting around while county staff and commissioners try to hammer out a way forward. The center is holding a fundraiser for a new building from 4–6 p.m. on June 21 at the county Fairgrounds during the Skagit Garden and Art Fair.
“We now know that we need to do some fundraising, that money gets attention,” Douglas said. “Maybe the city and the county will sit up and take notice if there’s ample funds in an account.”
Sophia Gates covers rural Whatcom and Skagit counties. She is a Washington State Murrow Fellow whose work is underwritten by taxpayers and available outside CDN's paywall. Reach her at sophiagates@cascadiadaily.com; 360-922-3090 ext. 131.
