From:
To: Mary Gourley
Subject: Support for a Formal Appraisal of the Senior Center Building Date: Monday, August 4, 2025 7:33:12 PM
Hi Mary ~ Please bring this letter to the attention of the City Council members:
I am joining with other members of the Sebastopol Senior Center to let you know of my strong support for a formal appraisal by the city of Sebastopol regarding the building it owns and which houses the Senior Center.
I have lived here for 35 of the 56 years that the Center has been offering essential services. But only in the last year, now that I am an elder, have I utilized some of the essential services that are provided. Because the building is no longer adequate for the size of the population it serves, I think of it as a small, but mighty community … but it has outgrown the space for those it serves.
There is a hidden danger here given the aging of our population - your constituents - which is more than evident than ever in the numbers of those showing up for the services offered. Limitations of space create limitations of those services. Clearly a formal appraisal is required to explore harnessing the value of the building toward purchasing and developing a new space that allows more accessibility and more programming for its long-term sustainability and for we your constituents.
To pursue a formal appraisal not only benefits seniors by providing a more functional facility, but will also benefit Sebastopol by allowing for a well thought out repurposing or sale of this valuable city asset.
Please take the opportunity to assess the options that are in the mutual benefit for the City and we who are the older adult residents. Those who are younger, as I was when I moved here, will one day be grateful for what you do now.
They will be the next generation of constituents and elders.
Please prioritize the formal appraisal as a show of support for the well-being and inclusion of those of us in the senior community.
With gratitude,
Janis Dolnick
A resident, constituent, member of and donor for the Senior Center