LANSING, Mich. (WLNS) — Meridian Township residents may very well be requested to approve a millage and bonds for as much as $40 million to pay for the development and operation of a senior middle or a senior middle and neighborhood middle.
The Township Board will vote on one in all 5 proposals for the brand new middle on Thursday, Might 8. Voters can be requested to resolve the difficulty through the August election.
The township has $5 million from a state funds allocation that it should spend by Oct. 1, 2026, or forfeit it. Meridian Township Supervisor Scott Hendrickson tells 6 Information that if voters approve the funding proposal on the August poll, state cash can be devoted to the brand new senior middle.
The Meridian Township Municipal Constructing (WLNS)
“So there’s been a task force in the township that’s been meeting for several months. They’ve provided two proposals to the township board, one for a senior center only and one for a senior and community center. After two meetings of discussion over the last month, the board has requested some additional options that scale back to the senior community center,” Hendrickson says. “And, so now, on May 8, we have five options before us. One that is the senior center, only one that is the senior community center recommendation that the task force made, and in three different versions that are scaled back from what the senior community.”
The prices for constructing and working the services run from an estimated $10 million to $12 million for a stand-alone senior middle to $40 million for a large-scale mixed neighborhood and senior middle with a number of facilities, together with a youth program space and a number of gyms for indoor actions similar to basketball, volleyball and pickleball.
In August 2024, the Board rejected a proposal to create a mixed neighborhood and senior middle housed on the former Yonkers retail house within the Meridian Mall. That call spawned the present dialogue and proposals, he says.
Meridian Township Senior and Senior Group Heart proposals. (Courtesy Meridian Township)
Operational prices of assorted proposals for a senior solely middle or a senior and neighborhood middle. (Courtesy Meridian Township)
“That was a bit more expensive than the board was willing to take on at that time. And so they asked us to go out and come back with a more cost-effective proposal,” Hendrickson says. “That was the genesis of the task force that came back with the five proposals will be taken up on Thursday.”
The township has operated a senior middle on the Chippewa Center Faculty, however a demolition and rebuild of that constructing has left the middle homeless. Okemos Public Faculties has dedicated to supporting a brand new location, Hendrickson says.
“One of the things that the local schools are committed to is making sure that they have somewhere to be. Now, obviously, with the building being demolished, we need to have some future,” Hendrickson says. “And this is really a township service that we provide. It’s just hosted in this public school building. We’d like to find a facility location that’s more central, that’s more accessible to our residents, and is within Lansing. Um, and it is a service that traditionally is taken on by the city or township, and that’s one benefit.”
Hendrickson says the duty pressure created from the failed Yonkers proposal was given a mission to create a proposal for a constructing situated on property owned by the township behind the Central Hearth Station on Central Park Drive.
Hendrickson says the failure of millages and bond proposals in surrounding communities in Tuesday’s election may function a warning for a poll proposal, however believes something the Township places on the poll will get help from voters.
“The senior center and the senior community center have been among the top three things that residents valued in our last two community surveys,” says Hendrickson.
“We’re confident that they will support having a senior or senior community center,” Hendrickson says of the Meridian Township voters.
