{"id":25396,"date":"2018-01-31T19:08:07","date_gmt":"2018-02-01T01:08:07","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.discoverclarksville.com\/articles\/?p=25396"},"modified":"2018-01-31T19:08:07","modified_gmt":"2018-02-01T01:08:07","slug":"clarksville-dedicates-ajax-turner-senior-citizens-center-addition","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.discoverclarksville.com\/articles\/2018\/01\/31\/clarksville-dedicates-ajax-turner-senior-citizens-center-addition\/","title":{"rendered":"Clarksville dedicates Ajax Turner Senior Citizens Center addition"},"content":{"rendered":"

City-funded expansion adds meeting rooms, offices<\/h2>\n

\"CityClarksville, TN<\/strong> – City of Clarksville officials dedicated Wednesday a major expansion of the Ajax Turner Senior Citizens Center, which will provide more space for programs and services for the center\u2019s growing number of seniors who drop in for meals, activities, classes and recreation.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is a great day. This beautiful facility will help more of Clarksville\u2019s senior citizens live healthier, more active and more interesting lives,\u201d Clarksville Mayor Kim McMillan said. \u201cThis shows we are extending Clarksville\u2019s prosperity into all corners of our community, and ensuring quality of life improvements for all of our citizens.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Clarksville<\/a>

Clarksville Mayor Kim McMillan cuts a ribbon Wednesday to dedicate the new 17,000 square foot addition to the Ajax Turner Senior Citizens.<\/p><\/div>\n

<\/p>\n

The $2.5 million addition was funded by the City of Clarksville, and the new 17,000 square foot, two-story facility includes a large meeting room for 60 people; a smaller meeting room for 20 people; a classroom; two crafts rooms; a nurse\u2019s station and three offices.<\/p>\n

The addition also enables better use of some of the center\u2019s existing space. For example, with new crafts rooms in the addition, more tables were added to the popular existing billards room.<\/p>\n

Anita Atchley, executive director of Ajax Turner, said the center serves an average of 220 seniors a day, and demand for services is soaring. Atchley and Robert Thompson, the center\u2019s Fiscal Director, thanked Mayor McMillan, the City Council and the City\u2019s taxpayers for the great level of support for the Senior Center.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/a>

A big crowd gathered Wednesday for the dedication of the new addition to the Ajax Turner Senior Citizen Center in Clarksville.<\/p><\/div>\n

The center\u2019s leaders gave McMillan a commemorative T-Shirt displaying the motto: \u201cClarksville 50+ Activity Center: Where strangers become friends and friends become family.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve been praying for this project for several years, and Mayor McMillan, the Council and the Good Lord allowed our dreams to come true,\u201d Atchley said. \u201cThis new space will allow us to grow and serve the people who need and want what we offer.\u201d<\/p>\n

The dedication event was attended by Senior Center patrons and staff, City Council Members, City Department Heads; and Ginna Holleman, local United Way executive.<\/p>\n

\"Peggy<\/a>

Peggy Austin, 81, who visits the center four times a week for fitness activities, attended the ribbon cutting Wednesday. She wore a T-Shirt that said: \u201c\u201cClarksville 50+ Activity Center: Where strangers become friends and friends become family.\u201d<\/p><\/div>\n

Among the patrons on hand was Peggy Austin, 81, a lifelong Clarksville resident who comes to the center four days a week for exercise sessions, a nutritious hot lunch, and to socialize with friends.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe new addition is great, absolutely great,\u201d Austin said. \u201cI spend a lot of time here, mainly to stay active and healthy, and this will give us a chance to help even more people.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Senior Center was chartered as a non-profit agency in 1965. It moved to its current location, which is owed by the City of Clarksville, in 1983. The center\u2019s Board of Directors operates it with a combination of City, state, federal and United Way funding, and donations and modest program fees.<\/p>\n

\"An<\/a>

An outdoor view of the new addition to the Ajax Turner Senior Citizens Center in Clarksville, which was dedicated Wednesday.<\/p><\/div>\n

The project was designed by Violette Architecture of Clarksville, and A&K Construction, Paducah, KY, was the builder.<\/p>\n

Phase 1 of the project \u2013 renovation of four restrooms \u2013 has already been completed under a separate contract, and still to come in Phase 3, which is under way, are new equipment and improvements to the center\u2019s full-service kitchen and more parking lot improvements.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

City-funded expansion adds meeting rooms, offices Clarksville, TN – City of Clarksville officials dedicated Wednesday a major expansion of the Ajax Turner Senior Citizens Center, which will provide more space for programs and services for the center\u2019s growing number of seniors who drop in for meals, activities, classes and recreation. \u201cThis is a great day. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[5],"tags":[19093,28967,250,1759,825,109,30506,693,31478,6729,3926,28969],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4xGYI-6BC","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.discoverclarksville.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25396"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.discoverclarksville.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.discoverclarksville.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.discoverclarksville.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.discoverclarksville.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=25396"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.discoverclarksville.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25396\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":25397,"href":"https:\/\/www.discoverclarksville.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25396\/revisions\/25397"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.discoverclarksville.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=25396"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.discoverclarksville.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=25396"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.discoverclarksville.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=25396"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}