Châteauguay seniors scramble after sudden community centre closure

Hundreds of seniors in Châteauguay are scrambling to keep their activities and social connections going after their longtime community centre was abruptly closed over structural concerns.

“I get up in the morning, I know where I’m going — 55 Club, instead of sitting at home watching TV,” said Centre 55 Plus member and volunteer Doris Palmater.

The city-owned building housing Centre 55 Plus was evacuated Monday after an engineering report raised concerns about the structure.

The organization’s president Garth Phillipowsky said organizers had no advance warning.

“They said, ‘We need to evacuate your building immediately,’” Phillipowsky said. “They didn’t give us much details at the time. They just said that there was some structural issues that they were concerned with.”

He said there are more than 750 members, with roughly 300 regularly participating in its activities.

First vice president Richard Douglas was at the centre Monday preparing for an afternoon billiards league when he received a call from the city asking to meet with Phillipowsky.

Douglas said he initially thought officials might be coming with news about the centre’s lease, which he says the organization had been waiting to renew. Instead, members were told to leave.

“When people retire, they need a second something else to do. This place gave them that,” Douglas said. “This gives them a second family, so when you see the look in their face when this is taken away from them, it’s not pleasant.”

The centre offers 31 activities, ranging from billiards, darts and shuffleboard to line dancing, exercise programs, music and monthly birthday lunches that organizers say can draw around 160 members.

Some activities held outside the building can continue. The centre’s curling group meets at the Riverfield Curling Club in Howick, while its Walking Warriors group has continued meeting three mornings a week in Châteauguay.

Second vice president Jennifer O’Hanley-Moore said keeping those connections going is particularly important for older members.

“We know that staying active and healthy, living a healthy lifestyle, is really important to our senior members’ independence and keeping them independent, so this community, the centre, is essential,” she said.

Health clinic relocated at last minute

The closure has also disrupted services beyond the centre’s recreational activities.

A mobile melanoma clinic scheduled for Wednesday had to be moved to another location. Funding officer Louise Garai said more than 80 members had registered for the free clinic.

“We’ve had to last-minute find a location to hold this mobile clinic, which was really, really important to our membership because a lot of them don’t have dermatologists,” Garai said.

More than 40 people could be seen waiting in line for the clinic Wednesday morning, including both centre members and other community residents.

Garai said organizers secured the replacement location only the day before the clinic.

She is now concerned about finding spaces for future events and activities while the centre remains inaccessible.

“It all came so suddenly and scared a lot of the members at the time, the way they came in and they said, ‘You gotta leave now,’” Garai said. “So I think it was handled not as well as it could’ve been had we been given a heads up.”

Members say they recently invested in building

Douglas said Centre 55 Plus has spent roughly $20,000 of members’ money upgrading its space over the past three years.

He said those investments included pool tables, kitchen equipment, lighting, painting, flooring, exercise equipment, dartboards, tables, computers and upgrades to the centre’s sound system.

He questioned why the organization was not made aware of the structural concerns before making those investments.

Châteauguay Mayor Éric Allard said the findings involving the Centre 55 Plus portion of the complex also came as a surprise to the city.

“The 55 Plus, for us, was a surprise. We were not expecting that at all,” Allard said.

Allard said the city had been assessing the condition of its buildings and further investigation identified serious concerns within the complex.

An engineer has recommended that one section of the complex be demolished, according to the mayor, while further investigation of the section housing Centre 55 Plus is ongoing.

No decision has yet been made about whether Centre 55 Plus will eventually be able to return.

Four organizations displaced

Centre 55 Plus is one of four organizations affected by the closure.

Allard said local radio station CHAI, regional television station TVSO and Mouvement Action Découverte, which provides day services for people with disabilities, were also displaced.

The city has secured temporary space for Mouvement Action Découverte, which Allard described as the most urgent relocation because of the services it provides. The mayor said temporary arrangements are also being worked on for the radio and television operations.

The city continues to work with Centre 55 Plus to determine what spaces could accommodate its activities.

“We want everything to come back as normal as possible, as quick as possible as well,” Allard said.

For members, however, there is still no timeline for when — or whether — they will be able to return to the building.

Palmater, a roughly 10-year member, serves on the dart committee, helps with special events and has another unofficial role at Centre 55 Plus.

“We were going to have Halloween draws. I had all the envelopes ready and boom, no darts Wednesday,” she said.

“And I bake cookies for them. I’m the cookie lady.”