Photograph by Dai Sugano

Henry Loose Hall was once a thriving spot where seniors gathered for various games and activities.

Meeting is planned to discuss possibility of a senior center

By Jeff Kearns

When the Neighborhood Center was built in the late 1970s, it was stipulated by the town, which received Community Development Block Grant funding, that at least 51 percent of it would be used as a senior center. Although the building is home to several organizations and activities for local seniors, it's questionable that it's used 51 percent of the time for senior programming.

Retired attorney Jack Orlove and former Town Council member Egon Jensen say the center currently is not being used adequately to serve seniors, and they also are critical of town policies on seniors in general.

Hoping to pressure town officials into considering an expanded seniors program, Orlove and Jensen will hold a community meeting Sept. 8--in the Neighborhood Center, of course.

Orlove believes that instead of offering the Neighborhood Center as a home base for various nonprofits that serve local seniors, the town needs a dedicated senior center.

"We're not being critical of the town. This is not an indictment," Orlove says. "We just don't think the Neighborhood Center is adequate or conducive to being a senior center. At best, it's a place to hold events for seniors, but it lacks warmth and personality and character."

Like several advocates for seniors before him, Orlove has his eye on Henry Loose Hall at 550 Hubbell Way.

The house was willed to Los Gatos Seniors Inc., in 1964 by Henry Loose with the express wish that it be used to serve seniors. The group numbered about 160 then, but now its numbers have dwindled to about 11. The seniors meet at the house weekly for cards and pool.

Several years ago, the West Valley Federated Women's Club, became involved with the seniors through the one of the women's club members whose mother belonged to the senior group. Eventually, the West Valley women became members of the senior group, and they hold their monthly meetings at Henry Loose in exchange for managing the property.

The house is in poor condition, and it isn't handicapped accessible, but Orlove says it might make a more hospitable senior center than the Neighborhood Center--that is, if the present tenants would allow their house to be opened up. Orlove hasn't formally approached either group yet.

This is not the first time, Henry Loose Hall, with its dwindling senior membership, has been eyed as a solution to the town's lack of a dedicated senior center.

Live Oak Adult Day Services, which has one of its three day care facilities for the frail and elderly in Los Gatos, and the now-defunct Family Services Association approached Los Gatos Seniors Inc., about five years ago with a proposal to build a new senior center and administrative offices for Live Oak, along with a day care facility on that site.

But while that proposal was still being discussed, Family Services was absorbed by another agency and had to withdraw from the effort.

Live Oak, however, continued trying to hammer out a deal with the Los Gatos Seniors Inc. The deal finally fell apart when the board of Seniors Inc., which had initially agreed to hand over title to its property to Live Oak, reversed itself and voted not to do so. Speaking for the seniors, representatives of the West Valley Women's Club said the seniors worried about giving up control--and they worried that the new center wouldn't have a pool table.

Emma Vargo, the club's president, says the West Valley Women's ultimate goal is to create a public senior center for the town, and that it will have representatives at the Sept. 8 meeting.

She says the group is also in talks with a University Avenue property owner, Robert Schiro, who has approached them about leasing the parking lot at the hall for five years. Vargo says that the money from the lease could help the groups pay for much needed repairs at the hall, like the leaky roof.

"There's no other avenue," she said. Vargo says the group, which is a 501(c)3 non-profit organization, would be willing to work with other groups to help build a senior center on the site. A lease arrangement, however, would limit parking at the house and make town approval of a senior center there unlikely.

Leta Friedlander, executive director of Live Oak Adult Day Services is now in the process of moving Live Oak's offices into its new multi-million dollar digs in Willow Glen. She told the Los Gatos Weekly-Times she agrees with Orlove that the town's current setup could be improved.

Community Services Director Regina Falkner, however, says that the services available to seniors in the Neighborhood Center are comparable to what's available in other communities, and that new programs are currently being added.

Vargo says her group tried to talk to the town about a new senior center, but Falkner told her that seniors were well taken care of and that there was no need for a building.

Before the town gets behind a new senior center, Falkner says that proponents should first consider where the money would come from to build and operate it, and perhaps more importantly, if anyone would use it if it. "It's not clear to me who would actually use the center," Falkner says, citing a previous drive in recent years that failed to increase the number of seniors involved in town-sponsored programs and a lack of volunteers to help run existing programs.

Next week's senior center meeting is set for Sept. 8 at 1 p.m. in the Neighborhood Center, 208 E. Main St. For more information, call Orlove, 356-9016.

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