Kyle Area Senior Zone held a lunch with the council to provide updates on the senior center

KYLE — On July 18, the Kyle Area Senior Zone hosted a lunch for older adults in the area to listen to a presentation given by Mayor Travis Mitchell about the highly-anticipated senior center.

Mitchell first began by discussing the newly built Public Safety Center and the vision it took to complete it.

“Visions start in meetings like this where we have conversations with the community, we have conversations with each other to try to figure out what it is that [the residents] need and how we can deliver on that vision,” said Mitchell. “The Public Safety Center, which we’re cutting the ribbon on in two days, required a sustained and focused vision for years.”

The safety center project began in 2018 and took a total of five years to complete. He followed up by stating that if the residents were to ask the police officers whether they would have rather had the building open two years earlier or have the facility they have now, they’d choose to wait for the current building.

The reason, according to Mitchell, that the senior center has not been built is that the city has had other impending needs, such as the Public Safety Center or road repairs.

“City council was not able to [start the senior center] vision back in 2020, because we had to build the [Public Safety Center] … Fast forward to 2022, we went for our next bond, but the community center could not be on that because we had major road infrastructure improvements,” explained Mitchell. “Now, we are at the point of starting on a journey to construct a case and ask the voters for approval in 2024, next year, for a community center.”

Mitchell consistently used the name “community center” instead of senior center when referring to the project, which he explained would encompass an all-in-one idea that would benefit the entire community, making it more likely to be approved in a vote.

“If we went to the voters and asked, ‘Will you please approve 10, 20 or 30 million dollars for a senior center,’ the chances of this proposition passing would be low because not enough members of the community would benefit from such a facility,” said Mitchell.

He extended the same sentiment to other facilities, such as a library.

The solution to this predicament would be to combine them all into one: a giant community center to be located on Dacy Lane, pending acquisition. The building would include a senior center, library, pool, recreation center, art display, a park, trails and more.

If the proposition and bond are approved in the 2024 election, money would then be allocated toward the project and construction would be estimated to begin in 2026.

Residents in attendance gave mixed reactions in their opinion of the idea, with one stating that they “appreciate that [council] has a vision, but we all have visions” while gesturing around the packed room. The same resident also noted that there was “an elephant” in the room due to the constant miscommunication and wanted names of those who led this misdirection.

“The list of names of people responsible are: me, Travis Mitchell. Robert Rizo, Yvonne Flores-Cale, Michael Tobias, Ashlee Bradshaw, Rick Koch, Scott Sellers, Jerry Hendrix [and] Larry Simone,” listed Mitchell.

The mayor also added Steven Butler and other members of older adult groups to the list due to "pressure put on city council" that had a domino effect on everyone.

Mitchell listened to multiple questions asked from community members and answered to the best of his ability throughout the duration of the meeting and also issued an apology.

“I do want to say, from the bottom of my heart, that I’m sorry about how long it’s taken us to figure this out,” stressed Mitchell. “In reality, we should have been communicating better and should have shown more leadership [and more of a] clear consistency of the vision.”