Mayor continues talks with seniors

In an attempt to put some rumors to rest, Long Branch Mayor Adam Schneider met with senior citizens of the community last week to discuss future plans for the senior center.

The Long Branch Senior Center on Second Avenue Schneider met with the senior center community on Nov. 10 to continue discussions about the possibility of relocating the center to the old Gregory School building on Joline Avenue.

"A couple of weeks ago there was the beginning of a discussion about moving the senior center down to the Gregory School," Schneider said. "I decided to go talk to the seniors and in the end, they said, can we go look at the school.

"The school needs a lot of work," he said, adding, "The seniors are saying don't move us. I am saying, let's just keep an open mind and find out what we are doing and where we are going with this."

The discussions come in the wake of a recent agreement between the city and the Long Branch Board of Education (BOE), in which a land swap was made and the city acquired the old Gregory School building and property.

Mayor Adam Schneider The senior center, currently located on Second Avenue, is situated in the city's Broadway Gateway redevelopment zone and at some point in the future, the center may have to be relocated, Schneider explained.

"If I get a developer for the Gregory School and we sell the existing senior center, then the city will have more money and flexibility for the construction of a new senior center," Schneider said. "I told the seniors that we could spend a lot of money on a new center and they could be involved in the planning.

"Right now, they were very openminded about it," Schneider added.

Although plans are not set in stone yet, there have been some talks among city officials about using the old Gregory School for senior housing.

Schneider contends that he does not want the city to continue to own the old school building and is not interested in being in the developing business.

"I am not interested in refurbishing it," he said. "Cities are not designed to do building. Everything always gets done by the low bidder.

"We need to see what is coming in the next couple of years and I am worried," he said. "If we were to get a developer for the Gregory School, I would want to sell it and the idea has been to use it for senior housing."

He continued, "The city's planner came to us and said that one idea is to include the senior center in [the contract with the potential developer] and have them build it [at the old school] and pay for it."

Some members of the City Council are not totally convinced of the idea and requested, at the Nov. 12 workshop meeting, that a study be conducted of the old Gregory School to see what the cost would be for the city to own the building, develop the building and maintain it.

"We will get an engineer to go into the Gregory School and give us some estimates," Schneider said. "There is no air conditioning and it is not ADA compliant. It needs significant upgrades to use as anything."

Other plans on the table for discussion for the school building is to relocate some off-site city offices, such as the court facilities, the Urban Enterprise Zone office, and the substance abuse prevention office to the building. There are also talks about relocating the city's police department to the building.

"It is a big building and we could do a lot there," Schneider said. "Some people like the idea of a police station there.

"A lot goes into a court facility," he added.

Schneider explained that the city does not have definite plans at this time for the Broadway Gateway redevelopment zone, but officials do have interest in developing the area in the future, and the project could encompass the senior center.

The current senior center building is old, according to Schneider, who said that the city has been maintaining it and the maintenance has not been cheap.

"We could possibly end up selling the senior center," Schneider said. "The seniors have known that was a possibility for a year. They have looked at alternate sites and buildings, but the problem is there just isn't any land."

Councilwoman Mary Jane Celli, an active member of the senior center, had voted to reject the land swap with the BOE because she did not want to see the senior center moved to the old school building.

She opposes the proposed location for several reasons, including the high volume of traffic in the area, lack of public transportation, the building is not ADA compliant and it is not in close proximity to the hospital.

"The mayor did talk to us and we will take a look [at the Gregory School]," Celli said.

At a public meeting in October, Betty D'Alessio, a member of the senior center, said that she and other seniors do not want to be moved.

"Your plans to make the Gregory School a multi-unit building is absurd," D'Alessio said. "The traffic there is horrendous. You are putting us in a very hazardous position.

"Right now we are centrally located and we feel safe," she said.

Schneider said that at this time, nothing is final and everything is on the table.

"We may develop up Broadway Gateway and we may not go up there," Schneider said. "We don't know right now. In the end, we could look at the school for the senior center or the senior center could stay right where it is. We don't know."