AUBURN — With a proposed space for a new senior center and $95,000 for the work, city officials will ask seniors what they’d like to see in it.

“We just really want to get input from senior citizens,” Recreation Director Sabrina Best said. “Right now, all we have heard from is just a few people that helped put this together. It’s great that they’ve been coming out to tell us what they think and want. But they are a small population of the senior citizens in Auburn.”

The city will host a meeting at 6 p.m. Sept. 13 in the Hasty Community Center, 48 Pettengill Park Road, to talk about the center.

“We want to know what they really do want,” she said. “We need their input. We don’t want to end up creating something nobody really wants.”

Councilors set aside $95,000 from the annual capital plan this spring to pay for the senior center. Plans call for putting it in the old Parks Department garage next to the Hasty Gym.

“We have an idea of what we could do with that space,” Best said. “I know what I could do, but I’m not going to be the one using it day after day.”

Mayor Jonathan LaBonte said he’d prefer putting the senior center New Auburn in the old St. Louis Parish, and that might be discussed at the Sept. 13 meeting. The public outreach should have happened before the location was picked and the budget set, LaBonte said.

“The question of programming and services should always be the first conversation,” LaBonte said. “Then, based on that, we can talk about where we can deliver that. Instead, a location was picked and funded and turned into a question of where it should be.”

Best said the location could still be an open question, depending on what seniors want.

“We want to give them the facts and then open it up,” Best said. “We’ll show them what we could do. What is it that they want? Do they want a stage for dances and performances?”

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