Pine Haven: Town pursues senior center

Pine Haven residents came together last Thursday night to discuss the possibility of pursuing a senior center within the township. Only 12 people attended including Council members Karla Brandenburg and John Henle; this was attributed in part to the harsh weather conditions at the time.

Henle presided, saying, “I called this meeting to see who is interested in senior center and what we can do to get one.” He admitted that, if the project goes forward, “it’s going to take a lot of money”.

He went on to tell the gathering of the options the council has been visiting including leasing an existing building in town, buying the land to build one or acquiring a van to transport seniors to other community senior centers like Moorcroft or Sundance.

“It all depends on what people want and how many would utilize the facility,” he said.

After speaking with Ann Rossi, a manager of the Gillette facility, about possible state funding, Henle told the gathering, “From what I understood, the state gets money from the federal government for senior centers, then the state dishes out money to the counties and the funding eventually trickles down to each town supporting seniors. It’s all based on population; of course we don’t have a big population in Crook County so we wouldn’t get as much as Gillette’s $1.6 million.”

The group discussed their individual views on what would make a great center if they were to acquire a building. These ideas included a kitchen, sitting areas where people could drink coffee and visit, card tables, a couple of televisions and perhaps an exercise area with a few pieces of equipment. Crafting, wood working, Yoga and a possible book club were also mentioned.

Chris Bingham agreed that, if the state works by numbers, there would also be an advantage for Sundance if Pine Haven could arrange to use one of their vans, “This would give Sundance higher numbers, which means more money coming into Crook County for seniors,” said Bingham.

Henle also mentioned the Gillette van that stops in Moorcroft every couple of weeks. “Gillette has a bus that goes to Deadwood,” he said.

He noted that those who enjoyed that type of recreation could catch that conveyance in Moorcroft or Sundance. They pick up in Moorcroft between the old center location and the post office on Big Horn Avenue.

To better determine whether the town would support a senior center of their own, the group decided to start judiciously by asking Keyhole Country Club to lease a room one day a week for the enterprise over the remaining winter season. Chris Bingham advocated this plan, “We’ll see how many people show up. If you start having a really good turnout consistently, then look at getting a building and have it open more often.”

The question of management came up and Henle suggested choosing someone to handle the planning and practical matters of the center if the club is amenable to the idea of a day a week trial.

In the meantime, a couple of those attending advocated traveling to neighboring towns to “see something set up where we could try it” as opined by Bill Suchor.

The title “Senior Center” was considered by the group as more limiting as they seek grants than a Community Center that hosts senior activities; they also want others to enjoy the facility so the title will be considered more in the future.

With this, Councilwoman Karla Brandenburg offered her thought: “If we do a building, in which I’m not necessarily in favor until we see if it’s going to work and we can get the money to support it, any type of building is going to cost us money and the town doesn’t have that money.”

She noted that the build of such a structure is not the biggest monetary drain to a community, the day to day and monthly up keep of said building is. However, if the town were able to utilize part of such a building, “We could actually put our current employees in a community building and have somebody watching over the building rather than hiring another person.”

The meeting was adjourned with the group having a plan to seek information from area centers and permission from the country club to rent space for a trial center one day a week.