Pflugerville will more than double the amount of recreation space dedicated to senior services after a July 12 City Council vote to approve funding for two projects totaling $370,000.

The projects comprise expanding the existing senior space at the city’s recreation center on Immanuel Road and creating a new senior park at Bohls Park with additional parking spaces.

The funding comes from the city’s 2015 and 2016 Community Development Block Grants, which are administered by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development to assist with services for primarily low- and moderate-income individuals, city Planning Director Emily
Barron said.

About 62 percent of the nearly $600,000 in CDBG funding granted to Pflugerville in 2015 and 2016 is slated for senior-related projects, according to city documents.

“We received lot of feedback from our senior community as well as City Council, and that helped drive the direction of CDBG projects,” Barron said. “[The feedback about which projects to fund] was overwhelmingly toward seniors because we have such a growing population.”

Pflugerville’s senior population is one of the most rapidly expanding demographics in the city, and the number of residents age 65 and older increased by about 532 percent from 2000-13, according to local social services organization Community Advancement Network. The city reports there are now 5,161 residents age 62 or older residing in Pflugerville and 2014 U.S. Census Bureau data estimated there are nearly 10,000 residents age 55 or older.

The CDBG project decisions came on the heels of a June 14 council vote to purchase a $150,000 bus for senior citizen groups to use for group outings, which Mayor Jeff Coleman said was a much-needed purchase.

“It’s something we’ve talked about literally for two years. The seniors have come back time and time again to tell us this is something they need,” Coleman said during the June meeting. “[Seniors], in my opinion, are an underserved population within our community.”

Pflugerville Parks and Recreation Director James Hemenes said Pflugerville’s senior services have been expanding with the addition of a senior program coordinator position last year and new initiatives, such as senior yoga and lunch groups. He said senior membership in these programs nearly doubled to 400 members since last year.

“Our programming has expanded, and we’re very limited on space here at the rec center,” he said. “We’ve expanded our offerings without having expanded space.”

The recreation center renovation will involve relocating parks and recreation administrative offices to the Bohls House at Heritage Park, moving babysitting services to the second floor of the recreation center and expanding the senior area into the former babysitting area, which will approximately double the size of the senior space to about 1,100 square feet, Hemenes said. The project will likely be completed by the end of 2017, he said.

Rodney Blackburn, who led a special senior advisory task force that was appointed by City Council last year to provide feedback on senior issues, said the CDBG projects will improve senior services in the city, but a dedicated senior center will still be necessary in the future.

Recommendations presented by the task force in October included requests for a new senior center, more recreational programs, group trips and additional services, such as
transportation.

“[The city needs] more room for seniors. What we presented to City Council was the city needs a new recreation center because the one they have right now isn’t big enough,” Blackburn said. “The city has grown. … And that thing was built 15, 20 years ago, so we need a new one.”

Hemenes said the creation of a senior center—whether it is a new building or the conversion of the current recreation center—is still a city goal. The next step in meeting that goal will be to conduct a feasibility study, which will likely be discussed in earnest during the next year, he said.