BELPRE - Officials broke ground on a proposed 1,500-square-foot multipurpose room at the Belpre Senior Center Monday.
The new room is expected to be under roof by Christmas, according to Belpre Mayor Mike Lorentz.
The mayor was one of several officials who attended the groundbreaking and breakfast, along with more than 50 seniors.
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Photo by Jody Murphy
Sonia Ramsey, Alice White, Norma Kemp, Jerry Lockhart, Burl Moore, Belpre Mayor Mike Lorentz, Washington County Commissioners Tim Irvine, and Cora Marshall, Belpre Senior Center Director Susie Casto and Joyce Mather, executive director of the United Way of the Mid-Ohio Valley, break ground on the new 1,500 square foot multipurpose room at the senior center Monday morning.
"The expansion will allow us to do more than one thing," said Susie Casto, manager of the Belpre senior. The center serves more than 280 individuals, Casto said.
Washington County Commissioner Tim Irvine said the center is bursting at the seams.
The new space can be used for exercise and art classes, dinners, dances and much more.
She added 28 percent of the city's population is over the age of 60.
"We will need that room over the next five years."
Lorentz said the center has received a wellspring of support, but there is still a long way to go. There is about $110,000 in funds to do the project, which has price tag of about $129,000. That does not include engineering costs, said officials.
Lorentz said the money will get the expansion under roof and get some interior work done. Some of the interior work - plumbing, minor electrical work - will be done by volunteers, including the mayor.
Casto officials are already planning a fundraising dinner for Oct. 11 at St. Ambrose Church in Porterfield.
"This is the busiest, most active group in the city," Lorentz said.
