City council member skeptical current senior center will need many fixes

For years, north side La Crosse city council rep. Andrea Richmond has advocated to keep and fix up the Harry J. Olson senior center on Front Street.

That’s exactly the path Mayor Tim Kabat is going down and d Richmond approves.

“It’s long overdue of course,” Richmond said, “but the seniors there have done smaller things like just going to buy some paint and painting some of the inside, as well.”

Richmond thinks a little more paint and some other minor repairs may be all that’s needed to get the building, that is over 100 years old, in good working order.

“The major fixes that need to be done are small things, like bathrooms and so on,” she said. “And maybe we can get some volunteers to help with that, as well.”

Richmond dismisses estimates that it could cost $300,000 or more to do the job right. She said there are “lots of errors” in the report that identified all of those needed repairs.

After years of studies on the city’s two senior centers, Kabat is pushing a plan that would identify and fix those things that need fixing, as well as building a new senior center at the south branch library.