City To Select Firm To Design $735,000 In Senior Center Improvements

The Suisun City Council is set Tuesday to approve an architectural firm for the $735,000 in improvements for the .

The vast majority of the money -- $685,000 – comes from a state community block development grant the city applied for last summer, with a $50,000 match coming from the city. The senior center had applied a few times for the grant in years past, but was not successful. This time around, the center got help from city staff member Alysa Majer to aid in getting the information the state needed.

, Senior Center Coordinator Karen Mickens said the senior center really needs the improvements.

“We’ve outgrown the usage level, thankfully, but now things are outdated,” she said. “The community stove that we have doesn’t meet the needs; the facility itself doesn’t meet the needs. We get anywhere from 100 to 110 people here each day. So to put it simply, it just doesn’t meet the usage needs anymore.”

Mickens said the kitchen equipment needs to be replaced, along with the roof and flooring.

According to a city staff report, Moniz Architecture is recommended by city staff as the architecture firm to select for the improvements.

The report said city staff and the firm think it will take about four months to evaluate the facility, get feedback from stakeholders and prepare construction documents. From there, the report said it could take a month and a half for construction bids to go out and comeback for approval, with a goal to be ready for two or three months of construction by the end of summer.

During construction some senior center programs will be moved to the community center because the senior center will need to be closed temporarily.