Senior centers' success has MAPS board in a quandary
The surprising success of Oklahoma City's new seniorcenters has the voluntary MAPS 3 Citizens Advisory Board grappling with the question of how many centers to build, and where.
"I think it's a mistake" not to build all the centers promised to voters, Mike Dover, chairman of the board's senior health and wellness centers subcommittee, said Thursday.
Promotional material for the December 2009 vote on the MAPS 3 sales tax included a promise to build four or five "health and wellness aquatics centers for seniors."
So far, two have opened, one in far northwest Oklahoma City and one in Capitol Hill.
The city council recently agreed to spend $3.5 million to expand the center at NW 115 and Rockwell Avenue to accommodate the crowds of seniors who have flocked there.
Langston University will be the city's operating partner for the third center, on the northeast side, while three proposals to partner with the city on the fourth center, on the southwest side, are under review.
City staff has recommended a decision on whether to build a fifth center be delayed a year to assess whether sufficient funds remain to build it.
At Thursday's monthly advisory board meeting, Dover said plans for the first four centers leave the near-northwest side — generally NW 23 to NW 63 Street and west past Penn Avenue — underserved.
And settling for four centers could have consequences at the ballot box, said Dover, who is a candidate in the Feb. 12 primary election for the Ward 2 city council seat.
"I think it might be a hard sell for some people on MAPS 4," he said, "if we don't do what we said we were going to do."
The draft priority list is topped by Boathouse District improvements, streetcar system completion, and the Rockwell Avenue senior center expansion.
The city council already has approved $15.5 million for those projects.
Next on the list are $10 million to renovate historic Union Station, $7.4 million for State Fair Park, and an additional $4 million for the streetcar.
Quickly moving up the list is about $450,000 for traffic signal upgrades to keep streetcars running on schedule.
A fifth senior health and wellness center, at about $14.8 million, is competing for remaining funds with $13.3 million for an Earlywine trail in southwest Oklahoma City.
'Time to think'
Union Station is to be renovated for dining, receptions and events in the MAPS 3 downtown park.
Renovations were not included among the projects promised
to voters and would be a diversion of MAPS 3 funds, similar to the diversion of $9 million for a convention center parking garage.
"I feel really good that we have some time to think about this," said Tom McDaniel, the advisory board's chairman.
"This month, it was nine years ago that the citizens voted, and when you have a plan to spend $800 million over the course of nine years, some things are going to change," he said.
"I think the taxpayers," McDaniel said, "would expect us to take into account what's happened in the intervening nine years and not just say, 'Well you said something nine years ago, circumstances may have changed but we just think it ought to be done that way anyway.'"
"I think they're asking us to exercise our best judgment, and substantially comply with what we told them," he said.
McDaniel said having a budget surplus — not only that but one that potentially exceeds $50 million — is a gift.
"This is just the greatest problem that a citizens' advisory board ever had," he said.