GULFPORT, Fla. \u2014\u00a0An expanded Gulfport Senior Center may soon become a reality.\u00a0<\/p>\n
What You Need To Know<\/p>\n
The Gulfport Senior Center was built in 1983
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The center sees three times the amount of traffic in 2026 compared to 2013\u00a0
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Preliminary designs will be shown at the March 3 city council meeting\u00a0<\/p>\n
Preliminary concepts for an expansion will be unveiled at the council chambers on March 3.\u00a0<\/p>\n
City leaders have been talking about the project since 2014, but there have been multiple delays.<\/p>\n
Senior Center Supervisor Rachel Cataldo started working at the center in 2013. She said they serve at least three times more people compared to when she started.<\/p>\n
\u201cAt that time, we were seeing about 200 people a day,\u201d she said. \u201cNow we\u2019re seeing 600 to 800 a day.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
There have been challenges that have arisen because of that growth.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Cataldo said there are programs they can\u2019t offer at the center because there\u2019s no room.<\/p>\n
\u201cI would say about ten programs that we cannot accommodate here at this space,\u201d she said. \u201cTaichi class that has 80 people in it, we would not be able to support that here at the center.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
For 65-year-old Karen Peterson, the senior center is like a second home.\u00a0She\u2019s been coming for seven years and plays in the center\u2019s harmonica club band.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Peterson sees the potential expansion as a chance to make the center even better.\u00a0<\/p>\n
She even has a few things on her wish list.<\/p>\n
\u201cProbably expand the rooms for activities, or the weights, or the multi-purpose room,\u201d she said. \u201cI\u2019d love to see Gulfport have a municipal pool.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Cataldo said the council has committed to covering 50% of the cost. However, the total cost is not yet known.\u00a0<\/p>\n
She said that it would likely be announced at that meeting.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"GULFPORT, Fla. \u2014\u00a0An expanded Gulfport Senior Center may soon become a reality.\u00a0 What You Need To Know The…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":161830,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[767,28,4628,115,596,135,137,136,835],"class_list":["post-161829","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tampa","tag-app-community","tag-florida","tag-matt-lackritz","tag-news","tag-pinellas-county","tag-tampa","tag-tampa-headlines","tag-tampa-news","tag-vod"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/161829","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=161829"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/161829\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/161830"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=161829"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=161829"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=161829"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}