Senior Center Narrows Down Possible Location

Mayor Joseph P. Riley Jr. has removed the Charleston Jewish Community Center as an option for the future home of a West Ashley senior citizen center.
City government has been considering plans and options for a new senior citizen center in West Ashley after years of prodding by seniors living in this part of town, tired of having to trek to an existing center on James Island.
One group of seniors, led by Tom Witman, has advocated the city purchasing and renovating the JCC rather than waiting several years for a design-built facility to be constructed on the Bon Secours St Francis Hospital campus off Glenn McConnell Expressway.
Last month, Riley and a host of city officials toured the 54,000-square-foot JCC and have apparently found it lacking. Riley wrote City Council, as a result of the tour, that there was “no need to enumerate all of the reasons” to reject the JCC and a rumored $7 million asking price.
Riley continued, writing that maintenance and rehabbing the facility would be too expensive as compared to an $8-million Roper senior center. He added that the city’s long-term planning points to the Roper campus as the future center of West Ashley, and not Raoul Wallenberg, where the JCC is located.
The JCC’s board voted and announced it was considering selling the facility earlier this summer, as it would soon become half-empty due to the Addlestone Hebrew Academy’s decision to move into a new site on the JCC’s campus.
Additionally, the center had faced increased competition as more organizations and facilities openly welcome Jewish families than did when the JCC was first constructed 60 years ago.
West Ashley City Councilman Bill Moody concurs with the mayor’s decision to continue to follow the plan for the Roper facility. But, he also said that he and several of the other councilmen representing this part of town are advocating the city purchase the facility for recreational uses.
The JCC’s campus includes an outdoor swimming pool that Moody, as the grandfather of a year-round swimmer, knows all too well from a multitude of swim meets.
Moody said that, unfortunately, the existing pool would not have as much attraction for other members of Council, including long-distance swimmer Kathleen Wilson, who favors an indoor Olympic-sized facility with “all the bells and whistle, like timing equipment.”
Moody said one of the ides for a new natatorium – the fancy word for an n indoor pool, being kicked around is to somehow include it in the redevelopment of Citadel Mall.