EDGARD — Officials say that senior citizens on the West Bank will hopefully be able to enjoy their new Senior Citizens Center next week.

The center, located behind the Edgard Courthouse, has been under renovation since the summer.

“The project included mostly interior cosmetic alterations and updates to the existing 1,620 square foot Senior Citizens Center,” Ames Yeates said.

Yeates is from Yeates and Yeates Architects.

“The notice to proceed for this project was issued to Veterans Construction with a contract time period of 160 days to complete the entire project,” he said. “The date for Substantial Completion was (Sunday) and the project has now been completed.”

There were many changes made to the existing center.

“The design of this project included opening up the floor plan of the existing seniors facility to avoid the division of the spaces created by the partitions and storage closets, which were located in the middle of the building,” Yeates said. “These closets were removed to make the interior space more open and functional.”

During the renovation process, senior citizens would meet in a trailer behind the Edgard Courthouse.

Daron Cooper, captain of projects administrator for St. John the Baptist Parish, said Senior Citizens Center is a place local seniors come together, interact and stay active with different activities.

“There are different activities like crochet, arts and crafts and things of that nature,” Cooper said. “They also feed them on a daily biases.”

Cooper said that while the renovations are complete, Parish officials are waiting to transfer phone, Internet and cable service from the trailer to the new facility, adding they hope to have the facility ready sometime next week.

“We did a complete renovation of the facility in Edgard,” Cooper said. “Everything in the building was touched. We got new floors and we removed all of the old paneling and replaced it with sheetrock. We also remodeled the whole kitchen, giving them more floor space in the kitchen and common area, and gave them new appliances like a refrigerator, stove and brand new icemaker. The bathroom was also updated to be ADA (Americans with Disabilities Act) compliant. It was an older building, and upgrades were very much needed.”

All of the bathrooms in the new facility will now be handicap assessable.

“The hardest part of the renovation was making the restrooms ADA compliant,” Cooper said. “We literally had to cut parts of the slab to reconfigure the plumbing in the building. I think it will mean a lot to them. You have a lot of elderly people who may be in wheelchairs or use a walker. We put in wider door frames and proper grab bars in the facility to help accommodate their needs.”

Cooper hopes area residents enjoy the new facility.

“I think this new facility will mean a lot the seniors,” he said. “It gives them a place with updated facilities to go to. It gives them some place to be proud of in the community. My favorite part of the renovations is giving the seniors of Edgard a nice, new, clean facility to socialize and have their activities.”

— By Raquel Derganz Baker