Gary municipal officials will consider proposals next week to develop facilities providing activities for area senior citizens and children.
The Common Council’s planning committee reviewed a pair of ordinances Tuesday calling for special use permits that rezone sites for the proposed facilities to allow for their development. The committee’s review sets the stage for a final vote by the full council to come as soon as their next scheduled meeting May 1.
One proposal calls for a senior citizen social center to be developed at a building in the 900 block of Broadway.
Paula Ford, a Gary resident who has provided care to elderly people in the past, said she thinks such a facility would benefit the city by providing a place where senior citizens could go to spend their time.
“There are many cases where these people might live with family members, but they’re gone all day and the seniors are left alone to do nothing more than watch” television, Ford said. “There are cases where people miss meals or medication because there’s no one there during the day.”
As Ford envisions it, she will offer a social center for people 60 and older in a 4,000-square-foot space. She said she already has a pool table she can set up for their use along with a large-screen television, and also would like to have a space where they could play basketball or card games or other activities between 8 a.m.-8 p.m.
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“It would be a place for them to go for people who don’t otherwise have anyplace to go,” Ford said, adding she expects card games would be a popular activity. “It could be poker, as long as there’s no gambling.
“I don’t want to see any money changing hands,” she said.
Ford also said she would plan to offer up to two meals per day at her facility, but she would want to talk with seniors before establishing how extensive those meals would be.
She also said the Fire Department still has to inspect the proposed facility she will rent before they would determine the maximum capacity of people she can service at any one time.
Councilwoman Rebecca Wyatt said the facility sounded like adult day care.
Council President Ronald Brewer said he likes the idea of a place where older Gary residents could congregate safety. He said the fact that officials merely want to rent the space means he would want to see the city impose a two-year conditional approval – with the facility’s long-term fate to be set after that.
Aside from the senior citizen social center, the committee also reviewed a proposal for a child day care center.
Lauren Price, a Gary resident, said her proposed facility in the 3900 block of West 10th Avenue would differ from other day care centers in Gary in that she’d be open around the clock.
“Not all mothers work 9 to 5 during the week, with weekends off,” she said. “There is a need for a 24-hour day care.”
She said she envisions her facility being able to care for about a dozen children at a time, and she is working to have security cameras installed – along with a security fence around the property.
Brewer said he is pleased to learn that. “She has met the requests I am looking for,” he said.
Gregory Tejeda is a freelance reporter for the Post-Tribune.