A black woman raced out of recently renovated and just-opened Reading Senior Center on Tuesday then trapped me before my soled shoes reached outdoor stairs.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis place is not ready for us. They\u2019re still doing work in there. This is about (Mayor) Reed Gusciora trying to get him some votes,\u201d she said. Her brazen broad daylight engagement deserved respect and earned anonymity in a city where snitches get stitches or potentially face nonviolent retaliation.<\/p>\n
A city employee named Miriam identified herself as coordinator of social services at Reading Senior Center but refused to provide a last name. She prevented entry and alerted that all media members needed permission from Business Administrator Maria Richardson or City Hall officials to enter the building that\u2019s been out of commission for eight years.<\/p>\n
Apparently, an invitation to attend the grand opening last week with the usual suspect Democrats on site had an expiration date five days later. The story had reached overkill status and a response to a request for coverage by Gusciora noted The Trentonian had published two articles about the $1.3 million rehab and reopening. The mayor said seniors had been ousted from their former popular spot for nearly a decade. (Send photos, a returned text message requested).<\/p>\n
A standoff occurred outside Reading Senior Center as the city employee said she was following instructions. Made a phone call to top mayor aide Andrew Bobbitt who arrived a short while later. He offered admonishment.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou can\u2019t just show up and walk in. You have to get permission,\u201d Bobbitt chided. We argued, talked over each other before Bobbitt granted access. Mind you, minutes before a building security guard had opened the door and offered admission.<\/p>\n
Incredibly, what would have been an in and out article that needed several photos of seniors and a couple comments, morphed into a mini skirmish just a football field away from the Battle Monument. By the way, that woman who screamed discontent and voiced a conspiracy theory about Gusciora intentions, proved correct about conditions inside Reading Senior Center. A fast tour chaperoned by Bobbitt and Miriam revealed unfinished business.<\/p>\n
An area marked \u201cComputer Room\u201d showed no computers, allegedly ordered. The open elevator door displayed shining stainless steel walls but it\u2019s not ready for service. A request for an application to join the center gained a response that those papers were in a box upstairs. An online application does not exist. Being a senior citizen and Trenton resident should render immediate acceptance.<\/p>\n
City officials released this information following the ribbon cutting.<\/p>\n
Additional work is continuing on the building\u2019s permanent HVAC system after construction revealed more extensive deterioration than previously known. The City is pursuing additional funding for the estimated $375,000 to $400,000 in necessary improvements. Temporary climate-control equipment will allow the Center to open and serve seniors while the permanent work proceeds.<\/p>\n
The Reading Senior Center will also become the new home of the City of Trenton Department of Health and Human Services\u2019 Division of Community Relations and Social Services, beginning Wednesday, September 16, providing seniors with convenient access to City programs and assistance.<\/p>\n
No mention if Trenton intends to hire more employees for the start up of Reading Senior Center. Bottom line, city officials should have waited until this project completed before reopening.<\/p>\n
L.A. Parker is a Trentonian columnist. Find him on Twitter @LAParker6 or email him at LAParker@Trentonian.com.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A black woman raced out of recently renovated and just-opened Reading Senior Center on Tuesday then trapped me…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":289682,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[120275,120274,128,130,129,120273],"class_list":["post-289681","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-reading","tag-apparently-l-a-parker-column","tag-but-not-open","tag-reading-city","tag-reading-city-headlines","tag-reading-city-news","tag-trentons-reading-senior-center-is-open"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/289681","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=289681"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/289681\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/289682"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=289681"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=289681"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=289681"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}