Fort Sumner plans new senior center

FORT SUMNER — The village of Fort Sumner hopes soon to be home to a new senior center.

The center is expected to be located at the corner of Avenue A and First Street. The proposed 21,050-square-foot building will feature a fully equipped kitchen, dining area, and handicapped bathrooms.

Jaime Wall, the village clerk, said she is optimistic about the center’s usage.

She said construction and design are centered around a “plan for the future possibility of expansion, so there could be a phase two of the project.”

The estimated cost is $632,950. Wall said funding comes from “many sources,” but mostly $500,000 from a Community Development Block Grant appropriated in 2015. The CDBG grant is funded through the state’s Department of Housing and Urban Development.

The remaining funding came from $98,950 in capital outlay from lawmakers, and a $25,000 local cash match from the Fort Sumner Village general fund.

Wall said $23,950 is slated to be spent on equipping the center, and $75,000 will go toward planning, developing and architecture for the building.

Construction is managed by Western Builders LLC from Las Cruces. Architect Lee Gamelsky Architecture PC of Albuquerque designed the project.

Mayor Justin Ingram said his goal is to “make something that will last” and benefit multiple generations.

Although the Senior Center project has been in the works since 2012, the original plans involved renovating and converting the town’s youth center. Since his election in 2014, Ingram said he has been working to reallocate, and secure funding to allow the youth center to remain open, and a new senior center to be constructed.

“I had to submit quite a few requisitions for changes, and make quite a few trips to Santa Fe to clarify my position on it,” Ingram said.

“It’s been a little bit of an arduous journey.”

Anticipated completion of the Fort Sumner Senior Center is December, Wall said.