Agency on aging wants to move office
BUTLER TWP — The county Area Agency on Aging offices have been housed since 1984 in a former care home building at the Sunnyview complex that the agency director said now houses mold, rodents and a backed-up sewer system that prevents workers from using some of the restrooms.
For those reasons, agency officials have been trying to move to newer, more modern digs for about eight years.
County officials attended the agency's board meeting Tuesday at the Tanglewood Center to discuss the options they've researched and to learn the board's goals in moving the office.
Beth Herold, director of the Butler County Area Agency on Aging, said in addition to its deteriorating condition, the current building is difficult for clientele to access.
She said a Sunnyview maintenance worker had to help a woman using a walker and oxygen use the ramp to the door, which was not yet open for the day.
The woman was short of breath and in need of water when Herold arrived for work.
Leslie Osche, county commissioners chairwoman, attended the meeting with Mark Gordon, county chief of economic development and planning, and Joe Saeler, director of the county Community Development Corporation.
The latter two have been scouting the county for places where the Agency on Aging offices could be moved.One desire of the board and Herold is to have the agency's offices and the Butler Senior Center in the same building.An option being considered is building offices and a recreation center at Alameda Park.The recreation center could be used for programs by both the Agency on Aging and the county Parks and Recreation Department.But Osche said because it is prohibited to put county offices other than parks and recreation in a park, state legislators would have to bring representatives from a handful of state agencies to the county to hear the innovative plans for the new offices and recreation center.Then, approval by the General Assembly would be required for the county to circumvent the requirement and the project to move forward, she said.That approval process alone would likely take three to five years, Gordon said.
But Herold and the agency board members expressed interest in moving out of the current building before that.Saeler said space is available at the YWCA on Cunningham Street in Butler, but it may be cost prohibitive to invest the money to renovate it to fit the agency's needs if they plan to move out a few years later into a new facility that has offices and a senior center.“Those really are the cards you're being handed,” he said.Osche said more spaces are popping up all the time because of situations involving the COVID-19 pandemic, including the former school at St. Michael the Archangel building on Center Avenue.One board member asked if the agency offices could be moved to the Tanglewood Center, where the Butler Senior Center is, but Saeler said the building is not up to code. Another suggestion by a board member of checking out space at the Clearview Mall met with the same reply.Saeler and Gordon said they would look for more options and return to next month's agency meeting to discuss them.Herold said one thing she wants to avoid is a “band-aid” space.“(The agency employees) deserve an office that looks nice, works for us and is easy for consumers to use,” she said.
