La Crosse senior center raising money for interior remodeling

Older residents of the La Crosse area have used the Harry J. Olson Senior Center as a gathering place for almost 50 years.

Now, the former church needs some fixing up, looking to raise $70,000 for the renovations. The senior center requested and received about $25,000 — $10,821 of that from the La Crosse County Board for replacing bathrooms.

Center director Erin Goggin said the main goal of the project is to upgrade the building’s bathrooms, “to make them ADA compliant so all seniors can use Harry J. Olson.”

“Because it came to our attention that there were seniors not coming, because they couldn’t use the bathrooms,” Goggin said, citing wheelchairs and the size of walkers as obstacles.

The Center’s operators bought the building from the city for $1 last year. The city of La Crosse bought the former church in the 1970s.

Terry Collins has been the Olson Center’s attorney, and WIZM asked him what the building needs the most.

“The first thing they had to do when we obtained the building was put an $80,000 roof on the old structure,” said Collins, “so the rain didn’t come in.” He says having workable bathrooms was the second priority.

The Olson Center will remain open as usual during the remodeling work, which should take about a month, starting in mid-February.