ENLARGED ACTIVITIES AREA OK'D.

Byline: SUE DOYLE Staff Writer

NEWHALL -- The Santa Clarita Senior Center will expand an activity room this fall after receiving some funding and operational approval on Tuesday from the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors.

The project extends the center's multipurpose room by about 1,200 square feet by building onto an existing outdoor patio and enclosing it. The extra space will be used for a conference room and two more activity rooms, each about 350 square feet.

``It's so needed,'' said Robin Clough, recreation and volunteer coordinator. ``We're just bursting at the seams here.''

About $244,000 toward construction comes from the city of Santa Clarita through a community development block grant program and an additional $30,000 from the county. The Santa Clarita Valley Committee on Aging, the nonprofit organization that oversees the center, is contributing about $10,000.

However, construction costs have risen by about 20 percent since the original plans for the improvements were made five years ago, and the nonprofit needs to find additional funding to cover the difference, said Brad Berens, the committee's executive director.

Still, he said that won't stop the project, expected to be completed by December.

``This project -- come hell or high water -- we have to make it happen,'' he said.

In addition, the architect's design for the project still needs approval by the county Planning Commission before hammers will start swinging and saws will start buzzing behind the center.

The expansion will relieve some of the day to day use of the multipurpose room, which often serves as a gym in the morning with aerobic classes, tai chi and ballroom dancing, and then as a lunch room in the afternoon.

In addition, it will be ideal for a computer lab where seniors learn about the Internet and take keyboard classes. Today, computers for those classes are stored in cabinets, taken down and set up for each class because there isn't enough permanent room for them, Clough said. About 800 seniors come to the Market Street facility each day, with the majority coming in for lunch. The center, which opened in 1983, serves about 7,000 seniors throughout the area with home-delivered meals, exercise classes, social activities and medical assessments. As a room full of seniors at the center Tuesday finished their lunch, their cartons of milk and cups of coffee, 82-year-old Miggy Mirabella slipped on her high-heeled tap shoes.

Her tap class was starting soon and she hoped the room of diners would quickly clear up so she could start click-clacking away on the room's hardwood floors. Dance class often starts before all the lunch tables are folded up and stored, she said.

``They should put the dining room somewhere else,'' she said.

sue.doyle(at)dailynews.com

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