Council member doesn’t believe senior centers should be sold

Centers cost $9,000 a year to maintain

Don’t give up on the senior centers just yet.

That’s the recommendation from La Crosse city council member Andrea Richmond, long a champion of the two centers. 

This week, the city’s board of public works has voted to sell the centers after a five-year lease expires, partly due to the expense of maintaining them. 

But Richmond said the cost to maintain them – roughly, $9,000 a year – isn’t that big a deal. She added the council spends much more money on many more impractical issues.

The plan calls for either selling the centers at the end of the lease to the senior groups for $1 each or putting them on the market as surplus.