Information from WYSH Radio
The one company that had expressed interest in leasing a building on South Seivers Boulevard to be used as an Anderson County Senior Center informed county leaders on Tuesday that they were withdrawing the offer.
B&B Properties had offered to lease the 10,000-square foot building to the county for five years at a cost of $1,896 per month but, in a letter to Anderson County Commission Chairman Robert McKamey, said that was no longer feasible.
The company recently leased space in Oak Ridge’s Jackson Tower to a group of doctors, which has resulted in a lack of parking for both the insurance operations housed there and the medical practice, so the company said it will be relocating some of those insurance operations to the building near downtown Clinton.
Plans have been calling for the county to assume control of the Anderson County Office on Aging, and earlier this summer, the East Tennessee Human Resource Agency—or ETHRA—agreed to voluntarily end its contract to operate the office.
McKamey told WYSH Radio in Clinton on Wednesday morning that the county will still take over the office and the responsibility of serving as the pass-through conduit by which the Office on Aging receives the roughly $80,000 in state and federal funds that make up its budget.
Once that happens, the Office on Aging will have to move out of its ETHRA office on Leinart Street in Clinton and will most likely find a temporary home in the Anderson County Courthouse.
Office on Aging Executive Director Cherie Phillips, who lost her home to a fire on Sunday morning, remains optimistic despite this week’s developments. Phillips described her reaction as shock, disappointment, and sadness but vowed that the effort to find a senior center will not be deterred.
She also said she has been assured by McKamey that the county is not going to forget about this issue in the meantime.
If you have a commercial property or know someone with a facility that could fit the needs for a new senior center, call Phillips at (865) 457-3259. The Office on Aging still has a storage building where they are keeping items that have already been donated for the center, and those donations are still being accepted.
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