Five public speakers at Monday night’s Mebane city council meeting brought a new idea to the council for future support and funding: a senior center.
Three Mebane residents, a representative of AARP, and a Haw River resident who has worked with other senior centers, outlined reasons why they felt the city should prioritize establishing a senior center, with several highlighting Burlington’s Kernodle Senior Center as a local model that Mebane should emulate.
Mebane resident Judy Butler pointed to nearby senior centers in Burlington, Hillsborough, and Chapel Hill as examples where seniors can go, but noted that each of those costs more for non-residents, such as Mebane residents who might go there.
She said Mebane’s Arts and Community Center provides a “very small” proportion of its services for seniors. Butler said there is need for “better services for seniors.”
Butler and her husband, Yonnie, as well as Gail Miller, a Mebane resident who is Alamance County’s representative to the North Carolina Senior Tar Heel Legislature, pointed to Alamance County’s growing elderly population as a justification for establishing a senior center.
Lisa Miller of Haw River, who works with a senior center in Kernersville, also leant her support, as did Mark Hensley of Greensboro, representing AARP, the American Association of Retired Persons.
Mayor Ed Hooks said Mebane would be glad to see the Kernersville non-profit agency branch out to set up a non-profit senior center in Mebane.
But most speakers seemed to imply they wanted Mebane’s council to establish a publicly-funded center. While it was not mentioned at the meeting, Hillsborough’s and Chapel Hill’s senior centers, and several others in neighboring Orange County, are actually county-funded operations, not funded by the respective municipal governments.
The speakers variously pointed to social engagement, health and wellness, educational opportunities, and community involvement/volunteerism as functions that could be provided or enhanced by a center focusing on services for senior adults.
Other than the mayor’s solicitation of a non-profit forming a center in Mebane, council members did not comment on the idea.
