By JESSA PEASE / Staff Writer

PELHAM—About 75 Pelham residents and city officials celebrated the long awaited completion of the 1,500-square-foot expansion project at the Pelham Senior Center Nov. 5.

Everyone gathered around Barbara Roberts, director of the Pelham Senior Center and public library, as she snipped the green ribbon, officially marking the completion of the project that broke ground May 7.

“I’m very pleased with the way things turned out,” Roberts said. “This project blends in seamlessly with the rest of the building, and we particularly like the way that, with no window treatments on the windows, the outside seems to come in.”

The Senior Center, which was built in 2005, hosts weekly meals, activities and social gatherings for about 300 senior residents in the area. This expansion will provide more space for activities, doubling the central room to about 30,000 square feet.

“We had so many people doing Tai Chi and exercise and line dancing, that they didn’t have enough room,” Roberts said. “(Now) we will have our big events (here) where we will have a lot of people, like the dances and the luncheons and things like that.”

Roberts said she is particularly grateful for the support of Mayor Gary Waters and the Pelham City Council. The city appropriated about $138,000 for the project, making the dream for the Senior Center a reality, according to Roberts.

“I think it turned out wonderful,” City Council President Rick Hayes. “When we first started talking about this and started trying to design it, we went through many different designs… I don’t think I ever felt like it was going to be this big. It’s wonderful it’s turned out this way.”

Hayes and Waters both thanked everyone for their patience during this project. Waters also thanked the staff of the Senior Center and Roberts for helping to make the expansion happen.

The multi-purpose expansion will now be used as the new exercise room, and the previous exercise room will become the center’s game room.

“I am ecstatic. This has been a long time coming,” Roberts said. “We are looking forward to providing some programs that we weren’t able to provide in the past because we didn’t have space.”