WATSONVILLE — The Watsonville City Council on Tuesday will consider pulling $176,000 from the City’s general fund to create a Senior Center and Older Adult Services Plan.
The plan would allow city staff to assume management of the Senior Center to create and expand programs and services offered within the facility. It would also create a Senior Center Director position with a salary range between $4,652-$6,234 per month.
Local nonprofit Association of Watsonville Area Seniors (AWAS) for the last 39 years has supervised the Senior Center, renting out the City-owned building on East 5th Street for $1 per year.
If approved, the City would assume control of the Senior Center from AWAS starting Oct. 19, according to city staff.
AWAS board member Scott Tims said he would attend Tuesday’s meeting to ask the council to push back that date in order to smooth what the nonprofit believes is a rushed transition.
“It’s been an absolute shock to the system,” Tims said. “Everything happened so fast.”
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The council is also expected to make a decision on the installation of gates in residential communities.
The Watsonville Planning Commission on Sept. 3 recommended the council prohibit such communities, saying their construction would go against everything Watsonville stands for.
“We can’t build more walls,” Vice-Chair Matt Jones said during the early September public meeting.
City staff prepared loose guidelines for the installation of gated communities that would only allow their construction under three circumstances:
• To prevent traffic from using the neighborhood as a thoroughfare, or a “short cut,” that would impact residents.
• When the neighborhood’s environmental layout provides natural, physical barriers from other neighborhoods.
• When a neighborhood is adjacent to a restaurant, community hall, school or business with high parking demands that would impact its parking.
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For the full Watsonville City Council agenda visit https://watsonville.legistar.com/Calendar.aspx.
