New Butler Senior Center enables county to provide more services for seniors
The new Butler Senior Center will become a central hub for services for older residents when it opens in September.
The center and several Butler County offices are sharing a building at 215 N. Duffy Road in Butler Township, which Butler County purchased in December 2021 for $437,500.
Over $5 million was spent converting the former Butler Health and Fitness building into a facility for the senior center, Area Agency on Aging office, Protective Services office and Veterans Resource Center. The extensive renovations included converting two racketball courts into two pickleball courts.
An open house is scheduled from 3 to 6 p.m. Aug. 27 before the Sept. 1 official opening of the senior center.
The senior center had been located in the Tanglewood Center in Lyndora for 34 years before the center was sold to Allison Park Church in November. Since the sale, the center has been temporarily housed at the Butler Township park building at 468 S. Duffy Road.
When the new senior center opens, it will host a merged membership of older residents from the Butler Senior Center and the Mount Chestnut Senior Center, which is located at the Mount Chestnut Presbyterian Church.
The Butler Senior Center has 320 registered members with 60 to 75 participating in services in activities every day and the Mount Chestnut Senior Center has 50 members with 20 to 25 daily participants, said Beth Herold, director of the county’s Area Agency on Aging.
The new facility will provide the senior center with flexibility to expand programs and hours, more space for activities, broadband service and computers for older residents to use, Herold said.
Exercise classes will be held in the center, which can be used as a warming or cooling center, she said.
Care mangers will be at the center to help seniors with questions and the Protective Services office is moving to the new center from Sunnyview Circle.
Protective Services investigates reports of suspected abuse, neglect, exploitation and abandonment of incapacitated county residents 60 and older; and provides activities, resources and support to detect, prevent, reduce and eliminate abuse and neglect.
“We will have a lot more opportunity for more services. Our staff will be there to help them even more,” Herold said.
Having the Veterans Resource Center in the building is a benefit for the seniors who served in the military, she added.
County Commissioner Leslie Osche said placing the Aging and Protective Services offices in the building will allow staff to “have eyes on seniors.” She said the veterans office is an obvious benefit. Seniors might not be aware of all the services available to them, she said.
A generator in the building will allow it to be used as a temporary shelter for nursing home residents in the event of a natural disaster, she said.
The building’s location allows convenient access to the nearby VA Butler Healthcare facilities, grocery stores, doctor offices and other businesses, Osche said.
In addition, she said the building can be used for indoor programming by the Parks and Recreation department during off hours and weekends.
All that comes at a cost. In addition to the purchase price and contracted renovation costs, the commissioners approved over $400,000 in change orders for unexpected issues that cropped up during the renovation.
Osche called it the risk and reward of buying an old building.
“There were more challenges than we could have ever anticipated. We probably could have managed it a little better,” Osche said.
The original contracts awarded in March 2025 for construction of the center totaled $5.5 million.
