Senior Center Expansion Groundbreaking Celebrated In HoCo

Columbia MD

16 December, 2021

5:09 PM

Description

HOWARD COUNTY, MD — Officials broke ground on the newly named Dr. Edward L. Cochran East Columbia 50+ Center, which will offer almost 30,000 square feet. The center's expansion project should be completed by July 2023. The current center serves a diverse and vulnerable community that includes approximately 86 percent who are 60 years or older, 7 percent who are below the poverty level and 35 percent who live alone. The center honors Cochran, a public servant who was a fixture on the school board, County Council, with Howard Community College and was a past county executive. "He never thought of himself as a politician but as a community advocate," Ball said at the groundbreaking ceremony. Cochran also spoke at the groundbreaking. "The work to establish the structure of modern government in Howard County was supported by countless engaged citizens working together," Cochran said. "I am proud of the results that have been achieved in our county in the past and I anticipate that the facility we dedicate today will add to that enviable record." The East Columbia 50+ Center was identified as one of the top priority projects in a 2015 master plan for the office on aging and independence, but little progress was made until 2019. The plan noted that 40 percent of Howard County's older adult population resides in East Columbia. The Ball administration allocated $5.5 million in the most recent capital budget to be put toward the center. The existing East Columbia 50+ Center offers 3,800 square feet with a capacity of 60 people and is the only center without access to a dedicated fitness center. Its total attendance pre-pandemic was nearly 17,000 annual visits and more than 32,000 visits to use fitness equipment. The current 50+ space is insufficient to offer desired programming to meet the needs of the community, officials noted. The expanded 50+ Center (29,400 square feet) will include: Community meeting space Commercial kitchen and dining space Programs in art, lifelong learning, languages Fitness equipment room and exercise studio A social day program for at-risk seniors Emergency generator The new building also is working toward LEED Gold certification by incorporating such features as: Native landscape species Highly efficient mechanical, electric and lighting systems Low-emitting building material (Low VOC) Solar panels Rainwater collection Paving with high solar reflectivity