By Jason Stuart
Ranger-Review Staff Writer
The Dawson County Commissioners are moving ahead with minor repairs to the Richey Senior Center’s roof so the facility can reopen soon and have renewed hope that significant grant funding may be available to either perform a major renovation of the existing facility or possibly build an entirely new one.
A contractor has been working on the senior center roof “for over a week,” according to Commissioner Doug Buxbaum, installing new rafters in the building to try and shore up the collapsing roof. The very poor condition of the building’s roof caused the commissioners to order its immediate closure on Dec. 8 out of safety concerns.
Buxbaum said once that work is done, the senior center should be able to reopen, at least for the time being. Since the building’s closure, the American Lutheran Church in Richey has stepped in to fill its role, but Buxbaum said as welcome as the support is, the arrangement is “very inconvenient” for senior citizens and center managers.
The work being done on the roof right now is just to buttress it and keep it standing, and will not address its myriad other problems.
“There’s still going to be some leakage problems in the roof, but they’re already there, it’s nothing new,” Buxbaum said.
A complete replacement of the roof is really necessary in order to keep the existing senior center open again beyond a short term basis.
“We’ll be able to use that if we re-roof it, but we’re going to have to do that if we want to keep it,” Buxbaum said.
To that end, Buxbaum announced at Tuesday’s commission meeting that Forrest Sanderson, the county’s newly hired planner with engineering firm KLJ, is bringing another KLJ employee to Glendive next week who is a grant writer, further noting that Sanderson and the grant writer believe they have identified significant grant funding opportunities.
The Richey Public Library is also in poor condition and county officials have been looking into the possibility of replacing that building. The commissioners set aside $70,000 on Tuesday to put towards the Richey library project, but Buxbaum said efforts to find grant money for that have gone nowhere.
“The (grant) funding for the senior center is out there, but there’s nothing for the library,” he said.
Library director Dawn Kingstad has previously mentioned the possibility of combining the senior center and library into a single new facility as a potential way to kill two birds with one stone, though that was before the condition of the senior center’s roof became known. Buxbaum noted that, depending on the rules of the grant for the senior center — if the county is able to secure one — that might still be a possibility.
The townsfolk of Richey will have their opportunity to hear the facts and share opinions with what should be done with the senior center and library at a town meeting the commissioners have set for Wednesday, Jan. 18. The meeting will be held at the Richey High School Cafeteria and will begin at 6:30 p.m.
Reach Jason Stuart at rrreporter@rangerreview.com.