A group of Chimayó seniors are upset with a plan that would move them from a Santa Fe County-run center to a Rio Arriba County-run center down the road.
Although county commissioners from Rio Arriba and Santa Fe counties insist the recently constructed La Arbolera Community Center is a better fit for the village’s senior citizens than the aging Benny Chavez Center, which houses the center now, several regulars said they have no interest in moving.
Santa Fe County Commissioner Harry Montoya, who represents the area of Chimayó where the Benny Chavez Center is located, has been discussing the move with Rio Arriba County Commission Chairman Elias Coriz, whose district is home to the $2 million, recently-opened La Arbolera Community Center just a couple miles west on State Road 76. Both commissioners cited repair issues and a lack of space at the Santa Fe County building as reasons for the change.
“It’s a beautiful facility,” Montoya said. “It’s going to provide them space to do things they need to do.”
Ron Pacheco, who manages senior citizens and community centers for Santa Fe County, said the decision to move has not been made yet, partly because there are funding issues to iron out. If the center moves into Rio Arriba County, there could be more seniors there who request its services, increasing the cost of a center Pacheco estimated already costs between $150,000 and $200,000 annually.
“Neither county has additional dollars to throw at this,” Pacheco said.
According to a memorandum of agreement passed by the Rio Arriba County Commission last week, Santa Fe County would be responsible for paying for the daily meals, activities, transportation of seniors, the Meals on Wheels program and half the cost of cleaning. Rio Arriba County would provide the use of the Arbolera building, the cost of utilities and half the janitorial bill.
The Santa Fe County Commission has yet to consider a similar agreement, Pacheco said.
Edie Trujillo doesn’t see the need for all the hassle.
“Why should we move when we have this nice place?” Trujillo, 77, of Chimayo, asked incredulously as she sat in the crafts room at the Benny Chavez Center on Aug. 26.
Trujillo is one of about a dozen women who do arts and crafts with an instructor at the center twice a week. The center also provides daily meals to the seniors for $1.50 each, and a Meals on Wheels program is operated out of the facility.
Like several other women there last week, Trujillo said she has been coming to the center for more than a decade. She said the building feels like a second home.
“That’s me,” she said, pointing to a painting on the center’s dining room wall of a young girl surrounded by several dogs. The image is a part of a mural the seniors painted several years ago, and Trujillo said the instructor painted the picture of her with the dogs because she often takes in stray pets.
Trujillo said the seniors who benefit from the center have been mostly left out of the discussion about its possible relocation. Instead, officials from Santa Fe and Rio Arriba counties have been trying to convince them of the merits of the Arbolera building, which the seniors believe is too big and is not suited for their needs.
“He’s been pestering us and pestering us and pestering us,” she said of Pacheco.
Trujillo and the other women at the center last week said they have declined Pacheco’s invitation to visit the Arbolera building. Only Connie Medina, who has served on the board for the Chimayó Mutual Domestic Water Association and attended meetings at the new building, said she had toured the structure.
“It’s too big,” Medina said, seated at one of four tables in the craft room. “It’s huge — it’s like an auditorium.
Since holding its grand opening May 1, the La Arbolera center has seen only irregular use for community events and by the water association, the Rio Arriba County Sheriff’s Department, and the Santa Cruz de la Cañada land grant.
But County Commissioner Elias Coriz said he is confident the building will eventually see more use, potentially by nonprofit organizations and groups hosting baby showers, wedding receptions and other gatherings.
“The media is rushing into it, but we’re not,” Coriz said.
Philip Morfin, grants and contracts administrator for Rio Arriba County, said he planned to attend a meeting Sept. 2 with an architect and staff from Santa Fe County to determine the feasibility of building a retractable wall in the Arbolera center’s main conference room. The wall would allow the senior program to have separate rooms, he said.
It’s not clear what will happen to the Benny Chavez Center if the seniors program moves out, but Montoya said he would like to find another local organization to use the space.
Pacheco said the Benny Chavez Center’s persistent plumbing problem is enough reason to look for a new building. He said there is often resistance to moving senior center locations, but he thinks the seniors will feel differently about the move once they try the new center, assuming the move occurs.
“I’ve told the ladies we’re not interested in moving the program if we can’t achieve the same level of services,” he said.
But Pacheco has plenty of work to do convincing Trujillo and some of the other seniors.
“We won’t go,” Trujillo said as the other women in the room nodded in agreement. “We’ll stay home.”
A meeting was scheduled for Wednesday (9/2) afternoon at the Benny Chavez Center to discuss the future of the senior center.