Council passed a resolution at its March 1 meeting to charge a $10 annual membership fee for residents and a $20 annual membership fee for non-residents for the new Keller Senior Activities Center.
The council’s passing of the resolution makes the fees official and effective Jan. 31 “to coincide with official opening of the facility,” according to the agenda item’s memo.
Keller held the ribbon cutting and grand opening for the new Keller Senior Activities Center, located at 640 Johnson Road, Bldg. C, on Jan. 29, according to the agenda item’s memo. The city decided to construct the new senior center after about 68% of Keller voters approved the construction of it in November 2018.
The idea to implement fees was first discussed during a city council work session on Jan. 18. Keller City Manager Mark Hafner noted at the work session that the fees would help keep up with the costs of the new facility. The new senior center is 21,210 square feet compared to the city's previous senior center's 4,250 square feet.
The old center did not charge an annual fee, so city staff agreed to charge an annual fee based on comparisons to other cities’ senior centers at the work session.
According to the agenda item’s memo, senior center staff has started charging users and already gotten 359 membership payments.
Per year, the estimated revenue from the membership fees will be about $15,000 to $20,000, according to the memo, and will be used “to help offset the increased operational costs due to the increased facility square footage,” the memo states.
