Less than two years after the Vashon Senior Center underwent a kitchen remodel, the agency is about to begin another set of renovations and will close for the month of March while the work is underway.
The center is overdue for renovations, according to the center’s director Ava Apple, who said she has wanted to remodel the space since she took the reins of the agency three years ago. Now, thanks, to a $176,000 federal grant awarded by King County, the aging facility will undergo a transformation, with new flooring, paint and built-in storage, along with improvements to make the center more accessible to people with disabilities and improve overall efficiency.
“The whole aim of the project is to make it more inviting and homey,” Apple said, noting that ideally, she would like a larger facility with plenty of parking, but such a change is not slated for any time soon.
“In the meantime, this will make the space work better for us and the community,” she said.
The center’s projected re-opening date is April 4, with an open house likely in the later half of the month. In the meantime, the center’s lunches will be served four days a week at the Eagles, and free door-to-door transportation will be provided. The low vision and grief and loss support groups that meet at the agency will meet across town at JG Commons. Other than those offerings, programming will be kept to a minimum for the month, though Neighbor to Neighbor, which provides volunteer services to island seniors, and Bluebird Medical Transport, which provides rides for seniors to off-island medical appointments, will continue while the center is closed.
Apple noted that the construction portion of the grant is $140,000, which is being spent locally. Vashon’s RO Remodeling and Construction will do the work, while the flooring will be purchased from the Vashon Floor Store and building materials from Island Home Center & Lumber.
At a recent tour of the facility, board member John Burggraff, a retired mechanical engineer who will oversee the construction project, noted that the building served as Vashon’s Library starting in the 1940s, and that some of its features, including the flooring, date back to that time.
Apple credits islander and architectural designer Deborah Reilly of dR Design Studio with creating the plans a few years ago as part of a “dreaming committee.”
“It was clear it was dated,” Reilly said. “It just needed to be brought up to this century.”
Pleased that a transformation is coming, Apple has been trying out paint colors and will soon look for new furniture, which an anonymous Senior Center member will pay for.
“I did not think this would ever happen,” Apple said. “I did not know how we would ever have the funding to do it.”
The grant for the remodel came at a time when the center is facing budget cuts after United Way of King County determined it would no longer fund programs for seniors. This decision left Apple trying to make up for $15,000 in her budget this year and $30,000 next year. She cautioned that the grant money is only for renovations, not the operating budget, and she is still faced with a budget shortfall. She has applied for a grant from Granny’s Attic, she said, but if that does not get funded, the center will likely have to close an additional day and be open just three days each week.
