Greta Samwel: LOCAL COLUMN: You'll be in AWE of the city's Adult Wellness and Education Center
Oct. 29—Visitors to the city's Adult Wellness Education Center are greeted by a massive wooden table that was once a large lone cypress tree cut down on the center's site on Findlay Avenue, just southeast of Norman Regional's Porter campus.
Lance Harper, the city's facility and construction manager, hand transformed the massive tree into the entry table, a fitting welcome for the $14 million, 32,000 square foot center which opens Nov. 13.
He spent countless hours crafting what became a labor of love.
"If I figured all the time it took I'd be sad," Harper said.
Longtime Norman City Councilman Stephen Tyler Holman wanted to save and move the tree, even build around it. But the contractor determined it would not likely withstand a move.
"We cut it down and I milled it and then I took the heart of the wood and made a homemade kiln to dry it," said Harper. "It took about six months just to dry."
----The center has been in the works for much longer than that. It's part of the city's Norman Forward program which taxpayers approved in 2015. Dozens of large and small projects have been completed as the half-percent tax finishes its half-way point.
The facility includes a fitness center, walking track, art rooms, a theater, demonstration kitchen, meeting rooms, a warm, saltwater fitness pool, living room with fireplace and pickle ball courts. There's also a billiards room and outdoor seating area.
----Unlike the current center, there will be a monthly membership fee, often paid by Silver Sneakers Medicare plans. Cost is $35 per month for an individual or $60 for two persons with the same address.
The center will be managed by Healthy Living Norman, a non-profit group that operates centers in Oklahoma City.
They're intent on encouraging the small core group of senior center users to the new campus and attracting new ones. It's aimed at anyone 50 years of age or older.
"We don't want anybody to be left out," said Katherine Leidy, the branch manager for Healthy Living Norman. "We are 100 percent member driven. We want programming that our members want."
----When it opened some time in the 1970s, my grandmother was one of the first to "hang out" at the Norman Senior Citizens Center on the corner of Symmes Street and Peters Avenue. A few years earlier the Norman Public Library moved to its new building on Webster Avenue and the city took back the Peters Avenue building for what may have been its first senior center.
Grandmother played bridge, dominoes and canasta. They made ceramics, exercised and even had a dancing grannies group. Her center friends were there for her.
The multi-level structure on Peters was built in 1928 for $25,000. It served as the city's main library until 1966. Many of my childhood summer memories are from the children's section downstairs. (They had air conditioning and didn't mind if you pretended to be reading).
----The new center almost wasn't part of Norman Forward. The senior center was listed among the citizens initiative projects. But unlike the other projects like the libraries, Westwood pool and tennis center, the senior center had no budget attached.
Seniors persisted, packed oversight and council meetings and pushed for the city to find funding. They went through about six different site possibilities, including the library property on Webster.
When the Griffin Park land became a lease rather than a purchase, that allocation became available. More pockets of money were found that added up to the $14 million spent to build the center.
"You walk through here and you don't think it's some kind of senior center," said Jason Olsen, the city's parks and recreation director. "This is going to be a crown jewel of not just Norman Forward but of the entire city."
