MIDLAND, Texas — One door closes and another opens-Senior Life Midland will no longer be partnered with the city in their senior services program.
"There's not a magic reason why, it just, it was time, it was a good time for us to make this transition, it was a good time for the city," Tracy Renton, Senior Life Midland director of development and marketing said.
After 32 years, Senior Life felt it was time to move on, with COVID-19 giving them a time to stop and reflect on their individual program needs.
But both parties will still work alongside each other for meal services.
"We're happy to help in any way possible and work with them through this transition," Renton said.
Now, the city has two options.
"Either we've got to be ramped up to operate higher, manage and provide that programming in house or explore if there's anybody else in our community, another organization who might be better suited than even we are to do that," said Tina Jauz, cCty of Midland director of community services.
They've discovered Midland seniors have a greater need for social services in addition to the fun activities like bingo.
They need help with their electric bills, home cleaning and tax preparation for example.
So the city has hired an outside company to help them with a master plan, to bring a breath of fresh air and newness to this community department.
"We just walked each facility, looked at what spacing is there, what works, what doesn't work, where we might think we want more space or what kind of programs we might see in the future," Jauz said.
Some changes you could see include gardening, pickle ball, billiards, ceramics and more walking trails outside.
"We are looking forward to the time when we can open back up our senior centers and provide that socialization that they really desire," Jauz said.
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The City of Midland will be releasing a survey in early to mid October 2020 for local seniors and adults to fill out.
This will help them gauge what kind of new services the community wants.
The city also has plans to host meetings discussing this topic in small groups, socially distanced in late October 2020.
For more information, you can contact them here.