For the first time in nearly 30 years, the City of Jackson will build a new Senior Citizens Center. Ground was broken today on the property next to the Westwood Gardens Indoor Tennis Complex for the center, which will offer programs that Mayor Scott Conger says are key to the quality of life for seniors.
“During my four years at The United Way, I traveled West Tennessee and heard real life stories of how Senior Citizens Centers save lives,” Conger said.
A former United Way of West Tennessee CEO and president, Conger credits funds the city received because of the Covid-19 pandemic with making a dream of the local Commission on Aging a reality. In 2019 the group was charged with looking into the possibility of building a center, even though there was no money to do so.
Commission Chairman Marie Law thanked members for their efforts and determination and reminded them of the blessings the center will bring to so many seniors for years to come.
One member of the commission, Virginia Conger, wife of the late Mayor Bob Conger and grandmother of the current mayor, was given the task of securing land for the project. The search was then on for just the right place; but the board hoped to build a center near Westwood Gardens.
Virginia Conger says the night she sat down to write a letter to Jimmy Anderson, who owned the property next to the indoor tennis complex, she started and erased her letter several times. Never really thinking that she found the right words to ask about acquiring the lot, she went ahead and sent the letter to Anderson.
The next day he called to say he would donate the property for the center. “You know of fairy godmothers, I call Jimmy Anderson our fairy godfather,” she said.
Anderson told the crowd it was a great honor to donate the land, especially for such as positive use.
The Senior Citizens Center is still in the design phase by TLM Associates. Henson Construction will construct the building, but no start date has been set.
