Washougal Community Center reopens after five-month closure

The city of Washougal and the area’s older adults are celebrating the reopening of the Washougal Community Center after a five-month closure. “We know the temporary closure has been challenging for many of them, as the community center is such an essential part of their daily lives,” Washougal spokesperson Michele Loftus said. “We’re eager to show our appreciation for their patience.” The downtown Washougal Community Center, which hosts the Washougal Senior Association, Meals on Wheels People, ReFuel Washougal and other nonprofit groups, closed in September for renovations during the first phase of the city’s downtown revitalization project. In January, city leaders heard that the closure was negatively impacting local older adults. “This has been dragging on longer than we can afford for it to. We’re being seriously impacted,” Washougal Senior Association member Wayne Patterson told the Washougal City Council during the council’s Jan. 13 workshop. “We’ve got seniors who are actually hibernating in their homes, not coming out because they’re not able to be involved in senior activities.” City leaders originally predicted the community center’s reopening would take place in December. Instead, the city completed the renovations in February. On Feb. 18, the city invited the Washougal Senior Association members to come celebrate the community center’s reopening. “Everyone that I’ve talked to says it looks awesome,” said Tanya Irvin, the vice president of the senior association. “It looks so much bigger and brighter. We’re so excited.” About a dozen older people attended the event, which featured food, drinks and speeches by Washougal City Councilwoman and former Mayor Molly Coston and Jason Van Aalsburg, the city’s public works senior analyst. “I was at the (Jan. 13) meeting where a great number of you, probably 30 of you, came and rallied for this reopening, and we’ve tried to really facilitate that,” Coston told the group gathered at the reopening celebration. “I understand the trouble it has (caused), the hardship, especially on a lot of you seniors that have been isolated all winter long. I do appreciate that. Living by myself, I kind of understand some of those issues.” Van Aalsburg said the updated community center will fit in with the rest of the city’s downtown renovations. “(The renovations) gave it a little bit of an updated look. There’s a lot more light in here. I feel like it opens up the whole place a little bit. And I think it’ll work well with everything that’s coming down the road with the rest of the project,” Van Aalsburg said. Schommer and Sons, a Portland-based contractor, replaced the community center’s east-facing exterior windows with a storefront roll-up door and a sectional door, and installed a new exterior canopy and siding. “We’ll have access on both sides of the building because we’re going to have a parking lot to the west, and then just off these new doors is going to be an outdoor space,” Van Aalsburg said. “You can open the roll-up door and have kind of an indoor-outdoor type of space opening into the park. Hopefully, the seniors or any other members of the community can come and rent it out and utilize that space.” During the renovations, members of the local senior association temporarily relocated their activities to several locations, including Bethel Community Church, St. Anne’s Episcopal Church and the Camas Community Center. “We got through it,” Irvin said. “We had to be flexible. Everything was going to be at The Outpost, and then it closed, and we had to scramble. Everyone found their own little places to do their stuff, and it worked out OK to keep connected.” The transition wasn’t as easy for senior association members who were more isolated, Irvin added. “There’s a lot of people that live by themselves, they don’t have a lot of contact with others, and this was their contact, so it’s been hard on them,” she said. “But I think that all of the regular people will be back once they know that we’re up and going again. We’re looking forward to getting back into a normal routine.” Now that the center’s renovations are complete, the city is moving into the downtown revitalization project’s second and final phase, which includes the creation of an outdoor community space, an off-leash dog park, a pocket park, a splash pad and expanded public parking. Van Aalsburg said the city will create “entirely new parking lots” but plans to have the new lots completed before removing existing lots so people visiting Washougal City Hall, the local library or the community center will still have parking spots during the construction. The city anticipates that the project’s second phase, which is being constructed by Vancouver-based Colf Construction, will be completed by early 2026. “I’m super excited,” Van Aalsburg said. “I think this will really be a lift for the downtown core. We’re trying to get people excited to come down here even more than they probably already are with the amenities that we’ll be providing.” Doug Flanagan: 360-735-4669; doug.flanagan@columbian.com

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