Building safety issues force Elfers center closing

At the same time, the senior center's director has resigned.

By JENNIFER STEWART
Published May 4, 2005

ELFERS - CARES Elfers Senior Center's two-story brick schoolhouse has been deemed structurally unsound and will close on Friday. Also, the center's director of nine years, Sandra Howard, has resigned.

"Efforts to convey my concerns about the aging building have been exhausting," Howard read from a prepared statement she gave to the center's advisory board. "Safety has been my prime concern," she added.

The center's 2,200-square-foot annex now will house the center's five part-time employees, its travel office and a limited number of weekly classes while officials decide how to proceed with the main building.

A number of classes at the senior center, which had been CARES' second-busiest such facility, will have to be moved.

"We felt that we just needed to go ahead and make the decision now for the safety of everyone using the facility," CARES president and CEO Bill Aycrigg said Tuesday.

CARES, or Community Aging and Retirement Services Inc., is a nonprofit organization that offers aging and retirement programs and services in west-central Florida.

Pasco County Schools owns the building, built in 1914 and plagued in recent years by troubles including structural damage, flooding and a bee infestation. CARES closed the second floor in 2003 due to signs of uneven settling in the exterior walls.

Howard, whose husband is an engineer and whose father was a builder, said her concerns about the building's safety increased after the upstairs closed.

Engineers have been examining the building and the annex ever since.

Howard's resignation is effective May 12.

A letter dated May 2 from James Mehltretter of Master Consulting Engineers Inc. to Aycrigg states, in part: "It is apparent that the building foundations are continuing to move albeit in small increments. The second floor is also continuing to sag."

The letter recommends CARES close the center on or before Sunday.

In the meantime, about a third of the center's weekly classes will move to the CARES Claude Pepper Senior Center, 3 miles away in New Port Richey.

Howard's wish list for the center includes "adequate parking, easy access and ample space to accommodate the 47,000 residents over 55 who live in a seven-mile radius of the Elfers center. And I sincerely hope it happens," she said.

[Last modified May 4, 2005, 00:58:13]