Commissioners to Build Senior Center in Chardon

November 16, 2023 by Brian Doering

Geauga County Commissioners recently moved to buy multiple properties in Chardon, including one intended for a new senior center.

“We have to make decisions of what’s not for today, but what is also going to benefit the people of this county in the future,” Commissioner Ralph Spidalieri said.

In a series of motions, commissioners moved to have County Administrator Gerry Morgan finalize negotiations to purchase property previously owned by Dollar General at 11180 Chardon Road in Chardon Township for the purpose of creating a new senior center.

“It’s a total of 17 acres and it has ample parking spaces,” Spidalieri said. “We had (ThenDesign Architecture) do a concept plan where the seniors would be able to have a nice facility that would be a bonafide and dedicated facility. Through this, we would be able to do walking trails, a retention basin and be able to also have a pond, a walking area and pavilion area.”

Spidalieri said the purchase should give the senior center a great location, adding plans are for the Geauga County Department on Aging to be at the new senior center by March or April 2024.

Director Jessica Boalt plans to take services for Geauga seniors to the highest level, he said.

“It’s going to serve a lot of a lot of our population. We’ve already walked this through with our maintenance department and have had in-depth conversations regarding the build-out,” Spidalieri said. “This is something that we could do very, very quickly and be able to bring us up to speed so that we can start to provide this service back to our residents in a fairly timely manner.”

Lennon said having the new senior center would serve the Geauga region very well and give the department on aging more flexibility to create Boalt’s vision.

“The funding for this property and project is coming out of department on aging’s budget and their levy money,” Lennon said, adding Boalt has done a great job saving money instead of having to turn to the taxpayers and asking for more.

“I’m appreciative of that as a taxpayer,” Lennon said.

Boalt said the department is very excited to now have a permanent location.

“We have been waiting for a long time, so we are looking forward to a permanent location and for the opportunity to have our input in the (construction of the) building,” she said.

Lennon said the situation should have been addressed a long, long time ago.

“We’ve grabbed this thing by the tail right away,” Lennon said. “We’ve been making moves.”