Right to left: Barbara Ray, Duke Fugate, Dennis Page and Joanne Roner laugh and chat at the Vale Senior Center last week. The center will hold an open house to celebrate final ownership of the facility. (The Enterprise/Joe Siess)
VALE – As far as fun goes, the Vale Senior Citizen Center is where it’s at, and soon, the center will be formally presented with the deed for the property it currently occupies.
For the center, which has operated as a nonprofit for five years, acquiring the property is a major milestone.
The center moved to the current location on Longfellow Street from a previous location in an old church on Cottage Street near the Vale Middle School a little over five years ago.
During their time at the old location, they spent five years raising money, and then eventually got a grant to fund the new building.
With the grant in hand, the city co-signed on the current property to advance the project.
“They were the ones that were our guardians,” Barbara Ray, the center’s president said. “They were the ones that co-signed for us for five years to make sure everything was handled the way that it should.”
The location on Longfellow Street was donated by the Goodman Oil Company to serve as a community project, and was eventually allocated for the new senior center, which took about a year to build.
The final papers for the deed for the property were signed last month and will be formally presented to the center during an open house officiated by Mayor Mike McLaughlin on Tuesday, Aug. 27. The open house runs 11 a.m. to 1 p.m.
Ray made it clear that she wanted to extend the invitation for the open house to anybody.
“We would like to invite everybody and we’re going to have refreshments,” she said.
Inside the center, about 10 members were spread out in little groups playing cards and chatting in the entertainment area.
In the far corner, across from the industrial sized kitchen complete with a buffet area, sat a black drum set on top of an elevated stage. A white circular sign hanging over the stage read, “The Town & Country Band.”
Ray, Dennis Page – the drummer for The Town & Country Band – Duke Fugate, a member of the center, and Joanne Roner, the center’s vice president, all stood on the stage and joked around.
Page and Fugate have been best friends since high school and where one is, you are sure to find the other. Not only does the center offer seniors coming from both Oregon and Idaho a place to build a sense of community, but there’s also a lot going on.
On Monday and Wednesday, the Malheur Council on Aging provides lunch at noon, and seniors can play cards and cribbage. They have art and craft classes, puzzles and pinochle.
On the third Saturday of the month, they have country western dancing and a potluck, and on Monday, Wednesday and Friday, people can take advantage of an exercise class.
Tucked in the far corner of the center is the stage, where the Town & Country Band rocks out on the saxophone, piano and a full drum set.
Now that the center owns the property, it can offer a lot more to its more than 100 hundred members.
For the first five years at the current location, the center was for seniors only, Ray said. Now, it is open to the public and anybody can stop by.
“It was really limited what we could do and who could come in,” Ray said. “I mean we couldn’t have parties.”
Now, Ray said, they will start renting the space out for class reunions and parties. However, “we don’t allow alcohol,” Joanne Roner, the center’s vice president said.
Ray wanted to make it clear that the center is a place where people are welcome.
“The coffee pot is always on,” she added.
Reporter Joe Siess: [email protected] or 541-473-3377.
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