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April 9, 1999/23 Nisan 5759, Vol. 51, No. 28
Communities address impact of a growing, aging population
LOU HIRSH
Contributing Editor
On the East side of Mesa, a rapidly growing area that has seen its share of new shopping centers, movie theaters and housing developments in recent years, many eyes are now on one eagerly anticipated community-oriented project.
Saturday, April 10 will see the public grand opening of the Red Mountain Multigenerational Center, a taxpayer-funded recreation facility located on the grounds of the city's Red Mountain Park, near the intersection of Power Road and University Drive. The new 65,000-square-foot facility, where about half of the space will be devoted to services for seniors, is evidence of an ongoing effort by Valley communities to meet the demands not only of a burgeoning population, but one that is steadily getting older.
"With the rate of growth we've been seeing the last few years, it's definitely been a challenge to meet the needs of our senior and retiree populations," says Rob Price, marketing coordinator for the city of Mesa's Community Services Administration.
Price says the city recognized several years ago that it would have to add facilities to serve the rising number of temporary visitors and permanent residents, many of them senior retirees.
"The senior community in Mesa is very excited about this center opening," Price says. "People here have been waiting a long time for this."
The multigenerational center was built using bond money originally approved by Mesa voters in 1987. Its facilities are open to residents of all ages, with amenities including an indoor walking and running track, a rock-climbing wall, exercise equipment, a gymnasium and classrooms.
The center has already begun offering services through Mesa Senior Services Inc. and the non-profit Sirrine Adult Day Health Care. Those services include meal programs, health services, counseling, adult education courses and social activities.
Less than a month before its official public opening, the Mesa center was already serving between 280 and 320 seniors every day - which Price says is well above the 200-250 people that city planners had projected would make use of the programs. This suggests planners will eventually have to do even more to keep up with changes in the population throughout the city.
"We expect that more of these centers will be needed down the road, but this is definitely a step in the right direction."
In fact, meeting the needs of an aging population holds more challenges than constructing new facilities, say those who administer programs serving seniors. As the number of seniors grows statewide, already tight resources are stretched even further, making it difficult to reach those who live in communities without a center like Mesa's, or who can't get to such facilities due to disabilities or lack of transportation.
Lupe Solis, projects and programs specialist for the Governor's Advisory Council on Aging, says state funding for senior-oriented programming is not rising in proportion to the population, and the state is not getting a lot of help from the federal government.
"It gets harder to provide help to the people who need it now, plus the population is getting older, so more people will require the services in the long run," says Solis.
While cities like Mesa and Phoenix are moving to boost services for seniors, state funding for assistance programs has remained flat for the past two years, as Arizona has turned its attention to other competing priorities, and no new funding is on the horizon. The result, says Solis, is a crunch on senior services such as transportation, food delivery and medical care.
"When you are seeing increases in costs, and not getting more funding to meet those expenses, you're losing money," she adds. "Those people are going to suffer (without new resources). You've got to get to all those people in need."
For now, there's an increasing reliance on synagogues and churches, as well as community-based aid organizations, to take up the slack until government funding is available to meet the increasing demands, Solis says.
She notes that the lack of funds for senior services, in the midst of a rising senior population, can have ripple effects for the community at large. When the government isn't able to provide new funds, staffing and training for elder programs becomes difficult. This in turn puts added pressure on care givers at home, leading to elder abuse and other tensions within families.
The rising number of new housing developments in the Valley, including those geared to seniors, puts other pressures on communities, as they deal with increased demands on utilities, police and fire protection, and other services.
Ken Plonski, director of public and community relations for Del Webb Corp. in Phoenix, a development company that has built several senior communities in the Valley, including the newer Sun City Grand in Surprise, said senior communities generally tend to put less strain on local services than family developments, since seniors tend to drive less and because retiree households usually consist of no more than two people, using utilities at a lower rate than a large family would.
Still, Plonski said regardless of the target age of specific developments, Del Webb works with all area communities well before construction begins, to make sure the developments' neighbors can absorb the changes to everyone's satisfaction.
"We deal with every situation in a unique manner," he says.
An example is what was done with the company's new development, Anthem, an all-ages housing community in the New River area. The company began selling the first 350 homes in the development earlier this month, with owners expected to begin moving in around September. As with past projects, including senior communities, Plonski said Del Webb gathered feedback from local residents and government leaders on concerns such as traffic patterns, aesthetics, and allocations of green space.
"In the case of Anthem, we spent two years meeting with the local people (on) designing the community in a way that mitigated concerns that they might have," Plonski said.
Mesa's new multigenerational center is located at 7550 E. Adobe Road (one mile east of Power Road and a half-mile north of University Drive). For more information, call (480) 644-4800, or visit the city of Mesa Web site at www.ci.mesa.az.us and click on "Parks and Museums."
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