Senior Center Repairs to Get Further Study

The City Council has an enviable task: It has to spend $110,000 from a federal grant by Dec. 31 to fix up its old senior center.

But to Mayor Bill Ossenmacher, it’s not that simple.

Ossenmacher said at Tuesday’s council meeting that the funds for a senior center could be better spent elsewhere, as he has seen only a couple dozen people taking advantage of the facility on Del Obispo Street.

And he added that San Juan Capistrano is building a senior center about a mile from where Dana Point had planned to put its new center, in a donated house sitting at Creekside Park, off Stonehill Drive.

“Which are people more likely to use, the nice one in San Juan or the patched-up one in Dana Point?” Ossenmacher asked.

But Councilman Harold R. Kaufman said, “Trying to couch this in a sense of fiscal responsibility is criminal and ludicrous.

“Why don’t we ship all our problems to San Juan? If we have a problem, to heck with it, let’s send it to somebody else,” Kaufman said. “To tell me to not go ahead with this project that is in the best interest of the people of Dana Point is ludicrous.”

Ossenmacher proposed continuing the senior program at Del Obispo and looking for enhancements there, while the city staff finds alternative uses for the grant money. The motion passed 3 to 1, with Kaufman opposing.