City leaders, staff and seniors packed inside the new Ralph O’Dell Senior Center for a Dec. 6 ribbon-cutting ceremony and celebration of a city milestone.
“I want to thank the community for making this investment [both] for now and the generations to come,” Mayor Ryan Tubbs said.
The center is named for Ralph O’Dell, a longtime resident and former senior center coordinator during its decadeslong run at its first space on Celina’s downtown square.
“It certainly is an honor,” O’Dell said.
O’Dell also served in the U.S. Army Reserve for 50 years after he was drafted into the army in 1943, Tubbs said.
“Ralph O’Dell is a patriot, a legacy resident in our city and a living American hero,” Tubbs said.
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The new center is nearly 5,000 square feet, more than double the size of its original roughly 1,500-square foot space, Tubbs said.
“Celina has grown, and so has our aging population and their need for a well-deserved, expanded facility,” Tubbs said.
The Ralph O’Dell Senior Center sits on the site of a former athletics facility adjacent to Bobcat Field inside Ousley Park, a future city development expected to break ground in 2025.
“So many of [the seniors] attended games and cheered on countless Bobcat victories right where we stand today,” Tubbs said. “It is right and fitting that your new senior center is enshrined here as a part of this complex that carries on so much of the history and heritage of our hometown.”
The process to build and open a new senior center started roughly a year and a half ago, Parks and Recreation Director Cody Webb said.
“Ralph—welcome home, bubba,” Webb said.
