'It’s not fair': Tecumseh seniors irate with forced club relocation
The Golden Age Club has four weeks to pack up their belongings and vacate a municipally-owned building.
“We were shocked,” club president Dara Pfiefer O’Connor told CTV News Tuesday. “We’re just getting back our members and we're finally comfortable and we're gonna lose the place. It’s not fair.”
For the last 50 years, the Golden Age Club (GAC) has offered senior citizens a place to go for everything from organized card leagues to healthy weight loss classes, even a meeting location for Alcoholics Anonymous.
“Everything we've got is in this building. We need this building. This is a members building for seniors,” said Pfiefer O’Connor.Members of the Golden Age Club pack a public meeting with Town of Tecumseh officials in Tecumseh, Ont., on Tuesday, March 28, 2023. (Michelle Maluske/CTV News Windsor)
According to town councillor Rico Tonial however, the club has been operating in the building on Lanoue Street without a contract; a concern that was raised during a Clerks’ Review last fall.
“They were using the facility as they wish which is a liability to our taxpayers, which we must fix,” said Tonial.
Simultaneously, the town was in the negotiations with the Essex County Library board, about the need for $1 million in renovations to the Tecumseh-based Cada branch.
After exploring other possible buildings - both public and private - the town decided to move the library into the GAC building, temporarily.
“We're asking the Golden Age Club people to just move to the Optimist Club (at St. Clair Beach Community Centre) for a year,” says Tonial.
During that time, Tonial says the library will reopen in the Lanoue Street building and they will work on the next chapter for the GAC.
“We'll negotiate the contract with the Golden Age club people, to fine tune what they need. No program is changing for them for the next year. Nothing is changing except where they drive to have their facilities,” said Tonial. “The dates (and) times (of services) will be the same, just the location has changed.”
Town officials won’t say where the GAC will operate after the library moves back to the Cada building, which is expected to take a year to complete.
At a public meeting Tuesday members voiced their displeasure with being forced to move on short notice, with the perceived lack of parking at the new location and the lack of consultation before the decision was made.
“In my words, I think they're using this building as a crop out,” said Pfiefer O’Connor. “I have a feeling they've got something more to it. I know they're saying no. But we have not been given a choice to come back.”
Town officials say they repeatedly promised to work with the members to figure out what services they want and how they might help to grow the club, which currently has approximately 80 members.
“We're very cognizant that you know, we're dealing with seniors, we're dealing with people that might have some anxiety of this change. It's emotional because they’ve been there, we understand that (and) we feel for that,” said Tonial. “We have a whole team ready to help them move forward. And that's our goal is just to move it forward.”
Club members at the meeting were disappointed Mayor Gary McNamara had a previous commitment and couldn’t attend the public meeting.
But he did meet with Pfiefer O’Connor and two other club members Tuesday afternoon, in a meeting organized by former National President of the Canadian Auto Workers union, Ken Lewenza.
Essex County Library CEO Adam Craig, who attended Tuesday’s public meeting, says the $1-million renovation project will make the Cada building accessible for users.
The cost is being shared between the Town of Tecumseh and the library system.
CTVNews.ca Top Stories
Cuban government apologizes to Montreal-area family after delivering wrong body
Cuba's foreign affairs minister has apologized to a Montreal-area family after they were sent the wrong body following the death of a loved one.
What is changing about Canada's capital gains tax and how does it impact me?
The federal government's proposed change to capital gains taxation is expected to increase taxes on investments and mainly affect wealthy Canadians and businesses. Here's what you need to know about the move.
'Anything to win': Trudeau says as Poilievre defends meeting protesters
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is accusing Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre of welcoming 'the support of conspiracy theorists and extremists,' after the Conservative leader was photographed meeting with protesters, which his office has defended.
Fair in Ontario, flurries in Labrador: Weather systems make for an erratic spring
"It's a bit of a complicated pattern; we've got a lot going on," said Jennifer Smith of the Meteorological Service of Canada in an interview with CTVNews.ca on Wednesday. "[As is] typical with weather, all of these things are related."
Quebec nurse had to clean up after husband's death in Montreal hospital
On a night she should have been mourning, a nurse from Quebec's Laurentians region says she was forced to clean up her husband after he died at a hospital in Montreal.
Police tangle with students in Texas and California as wave of campus protest against Gaza war grows
Police tangled with student demonstrators in Texas and California while new encampments sprouted Wednesday at Harvard and other colleges as school leaders sought ways to defuse a growing wave of pro-Palestinian protests.
Bank of Canada officials split on when to start cutting interest rates
Members of the Bank of Canada's governing council were split on how long the central bank should wait before it starts cutting interest rates when they met earlier this month.
Northern Ont. lawyer who abandoned clients in child protection cases disbarred
A North Bay, Ont., lawyer who abandoned 15 clients – many of them child protection cases – has lost his licence to practise law.
'My stomach dropped': Winnipeg man speaks out after being criminally harassed following single online date
A Winnipeg man said a single date gone wrong led to years of criminal harassment, false arrests, stress and depression.