IRVINE : Reaction to New Senior Site Mixed

Years of lobbying, fund raising and waiting will end for the city’s 14,000 senior citizens on April 9 when a state-of-the-art senior center and adult day care facility opens its doors on a lake in the Woodbridge village.

But for some seniors, the opening is a mixed blessing, because it could lead to several changes, including the partial closure of Irvine’s other senior center about a mile away on Sandburg Way.

Some Irvine officials have suggested renting out portions of the existing senior center as a way of generating additional city revenue.

Officials insist that any changes to the Sandburg center won’t occur for several years--and only after officials consult center patrons.

Nonetheless, some seniors are nervous.

“It makes sense to leave both of them opened,” said 87-year-old Ethel Irish Coplen, who frequents the Sandburg senior center. “We need to have them both.”

Coplen and other seniors have long been pushing for a second senior facility.

The new $7-million, 3,593-square-foot complex on Alton Parkway will house meeting rooms, an auditorium and a library, as well as a large kitchen where food for a meals-on-wheels program will be prepared.

The adult day care center will offer medically supervised services to frail and disabled seniors.

The Sandburg center is more modest.

But many seniors are accustomed to using the facility for aerobics classes, lunches, health seminars and dancing.

Coplen said that more than 200 seniors have moved into apartments and town houses on Sandburg Way over the years so that they could live close to the center.

“I don’t know if all the seniors are going to be able to make it to Woodbridge,” Coplen said. “I don’t know how some of them would get there.”

Until recently, city officials and seniors figured that the Sandburg site would supplement the Woodbridge facility and that a third senior center might one day be built in the Northwood area.

Irvine’s elderly population is growing rapidly and could exceed 50,000 within the next few decades.

The proposal to rent out portions of the Sandburg site came in January as the city staff searched for ways to reduce costs.

Council members said they will not decide until they measure the effect of the new center on the attendance at the Sandburg facility.

“If the (Sandburg) center is not being utilized, then we need to do something about that,” Councilman Barry J. Hammond said. “But at this point, it’s premature to discuss. We need to see what happens when the new center opens.”

Councilwoman Christina L. Shea said that if seniors stop attending the Sandburg facility, the city could rent out portions of it or actually sell the entire property.

“The fact is the city doesn’t have any money,” Shea said. “Everyone has to do their part to help out.”