Friday, March 8, 2002
|
Friday, March 8, 2002 |
|
Expansion of Gathering Place in PTC set; officials hope for lower bids on project By JOHN
MUNFORD
Now that the Peachtree City Council has given the go-ahead for the expansion of the Gathering Place, recreation officials are preparing to send out a second round of bids for the project. Recreation officials want to use the three-room structure to add more programming for seniors, which is the main mission of the Gathering Place. The building is also rented out to individuals for private gatherings, particularly at night and on weekends. The expansion will allow the city to offer more programs such as cooking demonstrations, a foster grandparenting program and simple woodworking, said Gathering Place director Janet Werner. Those are some of the programs requested by the city's older adults in a survey, including those who currently use the Gathering Place and those who don't. Another popular request has been for a resource center for grandparents who keep their grandchildren for short periods of time so they can have access to games, books and other child-related material to nurture the youths and keep them entertained, Werner said. The expansion will also create more room for current activities, Werner said. Recent trends show that Peachtree City should begin offering more night time programs for seniors, Werner said. Recent evening parties for Halloween and New Year's Eve were extremely popular and since participants paid a small entry fee they cost the city nothing, Werner said. "A lot of people don't want to go home and watch TV," Werner said. "We're just trying to meet their requests and to do so we need to keep changing." Recreation officials also hope to appeal to older adults who don't currently patronize the Gathering Place, said Randy Gaddo, the city's director of leisure services. With approximately 1,000 regular users in a city of 33,000 people, "We know there are a lot more older adults out there," Gaddo said. The expansion will also allow the Gathering Place to take advantage of more volunteers, Werner said. The $249,000 originally planned for the expansion project was in the city's budget for this year, and bids were sought for the project. But the funds were frozen as council planned for a hit in revenues due to the slowdown in the economy. Now that the city's revenues aren't as bad as originally expected, the funds have been thawed. The catch will now be in the rebidding process. The lowest of seven bidders the first time around bid $345,000 to build the 2,000 sq. ft. expansion. The project is scheduled to be discussed at the annual City Council retreat March 15-16. Unfortunately, the bids won't be back in by then, Gaddo said. The expansion also includes a basement area which could later be expanded into programming space if necessary, Gaddo said. "Our goal is to keep it at the original scope," Gaddo said, adding "we may have to go back for more money." Hopes are that the new bids will be more in line with the amount council budgeted for the project, which was designed by architect Don Cobb with input from recreation staff and residents who use the Gathering Place.
|
||