DATE: Tuesday, September 16, 1997           TAG: 9709160258

SECTION: LOCAL                   PAGE: B5   EDITION: FINAL 

SOURCE: BY REBECCA MYERS CUTCHINS, STAFF WRITER 

DATELINE: PORTSMOUTH                        LENGTH:   49 lines

SENIORS CENTER IS TO MOVE TO PORT NORFOLK BRIEFLY

The city's Senior Citizens Center, expected to move to Tower Mall on Oct. 1, will relocate temporarily to the Port Norfolk Recreation Center until a deal can be reached between city and Tower Mall officials.

The center will be in Port Norfolk ``probably no more than 30 to 60 days,'' Deputy City Manager C.W. McCoy said. ``And it could be that they could move right into Tower Mall. It just depends on if I can get it worked out by the end of the month.''

Margie Connor, the city's senior citizen coordinator, said she will make the best of the interim move.

``They have a nice set-up there,'' Connor said. ``Port Norfolk has a stage area, so I'm hoping to start line-dancing groups. And at one time, Port Norfolk had a very successful golden aerobics class, so we're hoping to start that back up again.''

One drawback to using the Port Norfolk facility as a senior center, however, is that it would have to be shared with children who participate in an after-school program from about 3 to 6 p.m.

But Connor said she will plan activities so seniors are out of the building by the time students arrive.

The Senior Citizens Center opened at its current location at 305 High St. in July 1977. As a send-off to the center, Connor plans to hold a slumber party there on Sept. 24, with rented cots to sleep on, pizza or Chinese food for dinner and videos to watch throughout the night.

``It's going to be called my `Slumber Center Send-Off,' '' Connor said. ``It's our chance to say farewell. Some of these folks have been here since the door first opened.''

Connor said the seniors were excited about the prospect of moving to Tower Mall but have their doubts that the move to Port Norfolk will be only ``temporary.''

``They feel like they're going to be put there and left there,'' Connor said.

Forty to 60 seniors use the center each day, most participating in billiards, darts, sewing, crocheting, knitting, health screenings, painting and ceramics.

``I'm trying to look at it as a positive thing,'' Connor said. ``I'm hoping to draw seniors from the Churchland area. . . . We'll have gained a better area for billiards.''

What happens if they have to stay longer than one or two months?

``Then when the kids are out of school for the summer, we'll have inter-generational programs,'' Connor said. ``So that will be a first for the city.''

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