Since October of 2010, more than 700 senior citizens have become members of the Austintown Senior Center on Westchester Drive.
"Number one for me, I'm a single person. I live alone and this helped me get up and get out of bed in the morning, to have some place to go and something to do. Because as a senior, you can only go to Kmart and Wal-Mart so many times," said member Gloria Habib.
The senior center has helped fill an important void, but to help the facility continue on with its mission, Austintown Township trustees felt it needed permanent leadership.
"We wanted someone to move our center forward. We wanted somebody who was able to apply for grants to provide us with addtional funding for the center," said Trustee Lisa Oles.
On Thursday, they officially hired Jim Henshaw as the center's executive director.
The Youngstown native spent his career as a chief financial officer and chief executive officer of several hospital systems out west. In the next month, he hopes to develop a strategic plan but in the meantime he has some short term goals to achieve.
"We have some immediate needs. We're trying to develop the kitchen services here so we can do some of the food cooking here. We want to expand the hours at some point," Henshaw said.
Extending the hours and adding members are two of his goals. One way to grow membership is to reach beyond the Austintown borders. It's open to all Valley residents, but if you don't live in Austintown, you are asked to pay a $36 annual fee.
The center is funded by a $300,000 levy passed by township voters last November.
