Design for New Austell Senior Center Unveiled and Approved

Seniors throughout the South Cobb area can get excited now that the design plans and timeline for their new Austell Neighborhood Senior Center have been unveiled. The Cobb Board of Commissioners unanimously approved the Choate Construction design at their Tuesday night meeting.

The original Austell Senior Center was located in Austell’s Legion Park. It had flooded twice in a four-year span, the last time during the historical flood of September 2009. The new center will be located in Clarkdale Park, a county park right down the road from .

Because the county recently due to a $31 million budget shortfall, the commissioners stressed that the center is not a new one, but a replacement of the one that had been flooded in 2009.

The centers are largely funded by grants, and the people who use them also contribute to help with program expenses.

The 2011 and 2012 Cobb Senior Services budgets currently include enough funding to cover the salaries of the staff members, furnishings, supplies and transportation services, said Crosswell Brim of Choate Construction in his presentation to the board.

The new 5,550 square foot center will have:

• 140 additional parking spaces,
• six raised planting beds in a community garden,
• four bocce ball courts,
• four horseshoe pits
• and walking trails.

It will also serve as a community center during the evenings and weekends when not in use by Senior Services.

The project is going to be LEED-certified, which means it will be a green facility that is energy-efficient and environmentally friendly and has been certified as such by the U.S. Green Building Council.

Construction is set to begin in July, and the project has an estimated completion date of March 2012.