Improvements will allow youths to use the Perris facility in the early evening for homework and games.
The Perris Senior Center is getting ready to open its doors to a new crowd: teenagers looking for a place to go for after-school activities.
The center will be open three or four days a week to middle- and high-school students, depending on staffing, after the second phase of improvements are completed.
That phase includes the conversion of the center’s television viewing room into a multi-purpose room for seniors and teens.
Earlier improvements included exterior facades upgrades, landscaping, larger restrooms that have been improved to meet Americans with Disabilities Act standards, new flooring and lighting and new kitchen counters and appliances in the Senior Center portion of the building.
Construction cost for both phases is $777,000. The funding had been set aside for such projects.
“It’s getting a full facelift,” Councilman Mark Yarbrough said Friday. “I’m glad we’re in a position to do this.”
Yarbrough said he has spoken to several senior citizens about the project, and they like the work being done.
“We’re making it better,” Yarbrough said.
Work on the center, which is at D Street and San Jacinto Avenue, is nearing completion and a dedication ceremony is scheduled sometime in November.
The Senior Center, which is used by about 500 people per week, provides a variety of arts and crafts classes, Zumba classes and a pool table area. It operates as a senior center daily from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m.
When the Senior Center closes, the walk-in program for Perris teens will take over and remain open until 8:30 p.m., said Walter Carter, community services manager.
Yarbrough said teens would benefit from being around senior citizens.
“Some of their life experience might rub off on some of the kids,” he said. “It will be an interesting mix.”
When in operation, the teen center will feature computers, electronic game stations, game tables, a lounge area, furniture, flat-screen televisions for a Nintendo Wii system and a small recording studio for performing artists.
Students can finish their homework, read, visit with friends or spend time watching television and chatting.
“It’s a complete transformation,” Carter said of the Senior Center.
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