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The Sunday Record, September 24, 2000

Seniors want their center built -- now
Angered by delay in Heights project
by Paul H. Johnson, Staff Writer


Hasbrouck Heights -- Senior citizens want some answers about the construction of a senior center within the proposed $9 million municipal complex under consideration by the Borough Council.

The Leisure Club, a seniors group with 298 members that meets inside Corpus Christi Church is getting inpatient over plans to build the center.  They believe the town should move forward quickly to build a center, severing the project from the municipal hall plans, if necessary. 

The senior citizens center was to be built last year, but a Dec. 11 fire at borough hall delayed those plans.

"We have the money;  I think they should have put the shovel in the ground and built it,"  said Bob Zappatelli, vice president of the Leisure Club.

The council will have two meetings on the construction of a borough hall.  The current proposal calls for a facility of almost 80,000 square feet that would include not only administrative offices but a senior center and a library, on a site between Madison and Central Avenues.

The first meeting will take place Monday at 7:30 p.m. at the VFW hall on Route 17.   The second will take place Tuesday at the same time and place.

The Council has held meetings in other borrowed spaces since fire destroyed the municipal building.

Zappatelli said he thinks senior citizens are being kept out of the loop about plans for the center and that answers are needed.

"I think we have a right to know," he said.

Council member Justin DiPisa said the status of the senior center will be part of the discussion at the meetings.

"It's part and parcel of the municipal complex," he said.

DiPisa said the council wants to build the facility as quickly as possible.

"I would try to put a shovel in the ground as soon as we can," DiPisa said.

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