Pennie Smith has been coming to the Wetumpka Senior Center for almost two decades.
She remembers driving to the center’s location near downtown. Since the 2019 tornado destroyed the center, Smith has been coming to the location at Cedarwood Community Church just inside the northern boundary of Wetumpka’s corporate limits.
“I enjoyed it over there,” Smith said. “I would be able to vote when I was there. But I love this location too. Where the old folks are, we’re happy.”
PHOTOS: A visit to the Wetumpka Senior Center
Smith drove to the old Wetumpka Senior Center while she still could drive. Now, Smith and three other ladies from her neighborhood ride the City of Wetumpka provided transportation. There are two buses that pick up clients across Wetumpka and bring them to the center. The buses also return the seniors home.
The center means Smith doesn’t have to cook the five meals a week provided at the center thanks to a partnership with Central Alabama Aging Consortium. But she does mostly cook at home.
“The meals here are pretty good, but I don’t care,” Smith said. “Some people ain't got no meals and can't get no meals. We are blessed to be able to get them.”
The center also puts Smith’s family at ease, most of the time.
“I only miss if I have a doctor’s appointment or I’m sick,” Smith said. “If I’m not here, my family knows something is wrong.”
The center serves meals to about 60 seniors everyday. About half are delivered through Meals on Wheels to those that are homebound. More than 16,000 meals are served per year. Since the 2019 tornado, more than 81,500 meals have been served.
The center sees between 40 and 50 clients daily. Some of the clients have different views on the location of the center but they all agree they like the large space they are in.
“With the large space, we can see everyone without sitting on top of each other,” Smith said. “The staff has done a great job in making this feel homey. I don’t think they could do this with a smaller space.”
Marjorie Mallard and Jerry Mitchell liked the location in downtown Wetumpka but see advantages to the current space.
“I could ride my bike to the other location,” Mitchell said. “It was highly convenient to me. I have to drive to this one, but I like this space because it is larger. I would likely go to any location of the senior center.”
The location at Cedarwood Community Church is about three and ¾ miles from the old location.
“I liked the convenience of the old location,” Mallard said. “I like the size of the space here. The old center’s space was small.”
Mallard also attends the Millbrook Senior Center but not on the same days.
“It’s a small space compared to this one,” she said. “It feels crowded.”
When the 2019 tornado struck and destroyed the center near where the Farmers Market now stands, the city located the senior center at the church within a week.
“We pay the utilities of the church,” Wetumpka city clerk Tiffany Robinson said. “It is basically our rent. We have our own dedicated space there including the gym/fellowship hall. It helps the church and it helps us. In a new building we likely wouldn’t be able to create the large space the seniors currently have.”
The move was meant to be temporary until the Alabama Municipal Insurance Corporation paid the city approximately $600,000 to replace the building, according to Robinson. It is in a separated interest bearing account.
In the months after the tornado, plans were drawn up for a new center to be located looking over the Coosa River to downtown and Gold Star Park. It would have been near First Baptist Church Wetumpka. The problem was the cost.
“Engineers did some preliminary planning on a rebuild and it came back at around $1.6 million,” Robinson said. “We didn’t have the rest of the money. About six years have passed since those estimates were developed and I would hate to see the cost today.”
