Fayette Senior Services will begin administering Peachtree City’s senior citizen programs Jan. 1 under a year-long contract for $182,000 that was approved Thursday night by the Peachtree City Council.
The contract will reduce the amount of money the city currently pays for its senior citizens services, currently over $200,000 a year, said City Manager Jim Pennington.
In addition, council decided to repurpose the former recreation administration building to be used for senior and adult programs now housed in the small “annex” space connected to the offices for the Frederick Brown Jr. Amphitheater.
Doing so will allow the tourism visitor’s center to be expanded into the annex area, city officials said.
The move to Fayette Senior Services is aimed at improving senior citizen services to Peachtree City residents, as a larger number of city residents are members at the Fayetteville-based home of FSS than are card-holders at the city’s Gathering Place, said Councilwoman Vanessa Fleisch.
Fleisch said about 35 percent of city residents are 50 and over, and the number will only grow in future years.
The benefit of using the old recreation administration building is the city won’t be spending $850,000 to expand the Gathering Place and also won’t be adding new facilities to operate and maintain.
The recreation building will add 4,200 sq. ft. of space to the cause, on top of the 4,900 sq. ft. Gathering Place. The rec building will require minimal renovations, officials said.
While FSS will be operating the programs, the city will retain ownership of both facilities, officials said.
Fleisch said she also liked how FSS had a track record of success and was a non-profit agency that was not an arm of government.
Councilwoman Kim Learnard asked how the city would make sure that loved senior programs are kept and not removed. Fleisch responded that she felt FSS would be adding new programs, but she felt there would be an evaluation period before decisions were made.
FSS will also be seeking input from current users of the Gathering Place and annex, officials said.
Both the contract with FSS and the repurposing of the old recreation administration building were approved unanimously.
