Butler’s new aging center a hit with seniors in first week
BUTLER TWP — In its first week of operation, the new Butler County Area Agency on Aging facility on North Duffy Road is already a hit with county seniors.
“The building and everything for the senior citizens is great here,” said Nancy Miken, who turned 88 earlier this week. “The food is fabulous and the exercise class I took was really good.”
The agency held an open house for the new facility on Thursday, Aug. 27, and officially began offering its first senior center services there on Tuesday, Sept. 1.
The new building combines the services of the former Butler senior center, the now-closed Mount Chestnut senior center, the Butler County Area Agency on Aging and Butler County Veteran’s Services.
“They're very impressed by the facility,” said Area Agency on Aging director Beth Herold. “They're enjoying the spaciousness of the dining area and the gym space where we have our exercise classes has been full since we opened yesterday.”
According to Herold, the agency had been looking for a new headquarters for around a decade, with COVID-19 delaying progress on the project.
“We’ve been working on this project for 10 years,” Herold said. “We've looked at multiple different sites and then this one became available about three or four years ago and then we just started working toward this goal. It's been a very long and rocky road, but we're here.”
“We did surveys, and individuals said they wanted it near a main roadway. We have Route 8 and we have 422, so it’s easy to get to,” said clinical supervisor Brittany Gilfillan. “They wanted it by other services that they would need, such as grocery stores, pharmacies, places where they could get their hair done.”
The shiny new building has even attracted many local seniors who had never taken advantage of senior center services until this week, such as 63-year-old Thomas Slater, who said he was encouraged to visit Wednesday after seeing an article about the new center’s ribbon-cutting.
“I go up to the VA quite a bit and it’s close to the VA. I saw the sign up and I decided to check it out,” Slater said. “It’s a beautiful building. It’s very spacious and calming. It's a very nice facility.”
“Everybody is super nice, and the building is beautiful inside,” said Dennis Smolen, a Marine Corps veteran. “They have a nice gym and veterans’ services are in here also. And I’m a veteran, so that’s nice for me.”
Prior to the opening of the new location, Butler’s senior center was located in the Tanglewood Center in Butler Township, before moving temporarily to a building at Butler Township Park in October 2025. The Area Agency on Aging office, meanwhile, was located on the fifth floor of the Butler County Government Center.
Through the Area Agency on Aging, seniors and their families can access vital services, such as in-home meal programs, protective services for seniors who report cases of caregiver abuse and farmers market vouchers.
The new headquarters can also serve as a disaster relief shelter if necessary, according to Gilfillan.
“If a personal care home would need to close because of a fire or a gas leak, those individuals can come here,” Gilfillan said. “We're equipped with a generator, a kitchen and showers downstairs to accommodate that.”
