Kyle community center discussions continue

KYLE — Discussions continue to circulate around the potential multipurpose community center in Kyle, following Assistant City Manager Jesse Elizondo providing a report to the city council at a special meeting on Saturday, March 16.

Beginning with citizen comments, Betty Conley, president of the Kyle Area Senior Zone (KASZ), stated that 22.22% of the city population is older adults.

“By supporting your seniors, you are also supporting the younger and middle-aged residents who are trying to figure out how to take care of their parents and grandparents. You’re giving the seniors a sense of community and purpose,” Conley said. “[You can] help make our city a blue zone, which scientifically has been shown to increase the quality and longevity of life. Mr. [Bryan] Langley is aware of the benefits of a true senior center, as he has managed cities that have built and managed them. They are individual buildings, not shared space.”

According to the Blue Zone website, a blue zone is an area which is given to regions that have a long life expectancy, which is attributed to diet, exercise, having a life purpose and more.

Cynthia Bentley of KASZ explained that the senior center addresses a lot of things that are not social, so the upcoming center should not be focused on that. KASZ holds a variety of classes, such as nutrition classes, which teach older adults what a proper diet is, classes on preventing depression, fitness classes, counseling and more. One of the biggest challenges individuals aged 50 and older face is grief, said Bentley, so they regularly hold classes to teach them how to deal with and process the feeling. The center also does a lot of volunteering and donating.

“I don’t know you, but I can guarantee you have parents, whether they are here locally or not. If they’ve ever lost someone, they’re lost. They really need a senior center where they know they can go and they can have comfort and they can have friendship and they can begin to live again,” emphasized Pam Gibson, general manager of KASZ.

Both prior to and in 2016, community members over the age of 50 have voiced that a senior center was important, which is why the city vacated the Krug Activity Center, according to Mayor Travis Mitchell. The wait for the community center has taken so long due to other priorities that have come about, such as the Public Safety Center for the police department and the increasing need for roads within the city. The approach for the center, said Mitchell, has been to wait for the 2024 election to propose a bond because that is when the most voters will be in attendance.

“We want to be ready and what being ready means is that we have to call a bond by August and to call a bond by August means that we have to have some basic numbers. We have to have some basic designs; We have to identify a location [and] we have to figure out what components are going to go into this building and that’s a lot to do,” Mitchell said. “My only plea with the community, with the seniors in particular, is to be patient with us, but also please be adaptable.”

Elizondo began by stating city staff is looking for input on facility use, funding/timeline and location of the facility, which he estimates will be between 60,000-130,000 square feet.

Facility use

Council member Daniela Parsley started the discussion by listing the numerous uses she hopes to gain from the facility, including a library expansion, flexible spaces, room for technological advancements, an indoor basketball court, coffee and food options and more, but also involving the youth, such as the Kyle Area Youth Advisory Council and inquiring what the city is lacking that the youth needs or wants to see.

“There is a huge lack of places for you to take little children that are indoor. So, if we were to be able to have another component that has like a 'DoSeum,' [or] 'MY Museum' kind of floor, where you have a play and learn environment that is also open for kids that have sensory disabilities, I would like to see that,” said Parsley, adding that this could be in the library.

Agreeing with many sentiments, council member Robert Rizo also stressed that the library provides a safe space for many individuals with families. It is a space for community members to educate themselves and gain resources that they may not have at home, so this is an important factor for the new space, considering the current library is "outgrown."

Council member Lauralee Harris stated that as a member of KASZ, she knows the difficulties that are arising due to the current facility, so she would like to see this solved with the new center: “One of the things that we truly need is a kitchen and an area sufficient to serve at least 200 people. We turn people away on Tuesday, which is the only day that we are able to provide lunches. We consistently turn people away,” said Harris. “Many of our seniors are food insecure.”

The AARP came out with a livability index a few months ago, where Kyle was listed below average and one of the reasons is because of the lack of resources for older adults, explained Harris. One fix would be to provide a kitchen, which would be eligible for federal funding, especially because many senior centers provide meals five days a week on a sliding scale, if not free.

Conley spoke up and said that the seniors do not mind sharing a space, as long as they know that they will have priority over the space when the time comes. As it is now, KASZ shares a space with the city and the city always gets top priority whenever they attempt to plan something, explained Conley. To remedy the needs, council member Bear Heiser requested both a list of needs and a list of amenities that would be nice to have from KASZ because this would make it easier for council members to determine what the facility use looks like.

Mitchell said that the more conversations that they have, the less the recreation center becomes a priority due to the upcoming Sportsplex, especially because of the other pressing needs. The mayor’s most important item is a shared meeting space and the ability of hosting large events, so he is willing to sacrifice the recreation center. Although, he acknowledged that the activity center is a big draw for voters, as it appeals to the most community members.

Each council member listed their priorities in order, as follows: Mitchell, seniors, library, recreation; Tobias, seniors, library, recreation; Rizo, seniors, library, recreation; Harris, seniors, recreation, library; Parsley, recreation, seniors, library with a children’s center; and Heiser, library, recreation, seniors.

This list allows city staff to understand that the senior center and library are the top priorities for the upcoming community center.

Funding

“How do we find a way to take these problems and try to solve them? We've got one shot at this," said the mayor. "What can we do to maximize the impact that we have on the community through a 2024 bond?"

Council member Michael Tobias said that he has done the research and understands why the center is needed, but “Just like anything else, there’s always going to be a dollar attached to this. Funding is going to be the major issue,” he said. “If we bring this forward to bond, that’s going to be a possible tax increase … So, we have to be responsible and see where the numbers lie.”

Heiser asked what the maximum amount of money the city is willing to spend on the project is, to which Parsley stated that they should be aiming toward $115 million.

Although there is no set number, Mitchell gave an example, stating that if the city put in $75 million at $750 a square foot, they would get a 100,000 square foot building: “There’s potential to partner with the county, which we need to be engaged with, but in terms of state and federal grant dollars, if we put that into the budget and don’t get it, then it threatens the project,” he said.

“We are the ones, in my opinion, who need to put the guard rails around the consultant or the designer and say, ‘We want you to build within a budget of $75 million or $100 million and we want these components in this priority,’” said Mitchell.

“We have lots of visions, lots of wants [and] lots of needs, but we also have bills to pay at the end of the month here in our city,” said Tobias.

Location

Tobias reiterated the importance of selecting a location, citing the original location, Linebarger Lake by Tobias Elementary School, which has been deemed unusable. The two locations currently listed as options are Kyle Vista Park by Chapa Middle School and a chunk of land located next to Kensington Trails. This land is not yet owned, but is in contract to be bought, according to Mitchell, which is the location that he is more fond of.

“I want to focus on the land that we own first,” said Tobias.

Tobias mentioned that the building should be a complex, with the possibility of multiple floors, so the seniors have their own space, but still allows for the possible recreation center.

“Limiting ourselves to just a building is something I don’t want to do. I want to make sure that you have park space, you have adequate parking, you have amenities, safe walking trails, so a little bit of everything. Let’s look at the entire property and see what else we can do. I would love to see y’all have everything and that’s the entire community,” said Rizo.

For Parsley, the location being central to the entire community and allowing space for potential expansion, as the community grows, is important.

Ultimately, the council members kept both locations as possibilities and requested for staff to bring back information dictating which land would be the most viable.

The next steps to take are to create conceptual designs and renderings for both locations with engineering analysis to determine which location will be chosen. Staff will also come back and give more options with specifics to shared spaces, what it could look like, etc. Because of the time limit, there is no time to have requests for qualifications, so staff and council will look at firms to bring back a recommendation for which firm to choose to create a professional services agreement with.

To listen to the discussion, visit bit.ly/43qXIPH.