SENIOR CENTER HIT BY INSPECTION REPORTS
Official says steps taken to address problems mentioned by agencies
City officials said they have already taken the necessary steps to address a few recent failed health inspection items at the Watervliet Senior Center. According to a June SOFA Food Service Inspection report and a report from Albany County Department for Aging obtained by The Record, the senior center — which is also partially operated by officials from the Cohoes Senior Center — failed due to inadequate insect and rodent control, improper construction and maintenance with soiled floors and walls, and a kitchen area that was not cleaned properly. “The senior center itself is used by the seniors and it is also used for specific city meetings, it is also available for usage for non-profits for fundraisers,” said Jeremy Smith, the city’s general manager. “But the kitchen is actually not operated by the city, the kitchen is operated by, I believe, the Cohoes Senior Center, I know a group from Cohoes comes over here and makes the meals for seniors.” Smith said the city is not responsible for the cleaning up after the senior center kitchen has been used. “Anybody that uses the facility and uses the kitchen, since the kitchen isn’t regularly used, is responsible for the cleaning up of the kitchen,” explained Smith. “We have a cleaner that works for the city that does city hall, the court, the police department, the library and the senior center, that basically cleans the floors, cleans the bathrooms and does the garbage’s along with other cleanings as necessary.”
Smith said since the report came out, city officials now have their cleaner perform his duties on a daily basis.
“So what we’ve done is that we used to have an every other day cleaning of the floors over there and now we have a everyday cleaning of the floors over there to make sure that they do not get soiled on a further basis,” said Smith. “We also have our new city clerk [Scott O’Reilly] is also basically our building and facilities manager and he does a walk through weekly now to see if there are any other areas that need special attention, that way we’re not waiting for reports to come out.”
Another item from the inspection list was that there were dead bugs in the indicator traps in the senior center, but Smith noted how once a month Regan Pest Services comes in and performs work.
“They do inspections and update all of the traps and do a full inspection of the property over there once a month,” said Smith. “We’re really happy with what Regan Pest Services does for us, each month that they’re here, they always come back and give us a full report with what’s going on.”