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Elders Promised Assisted Living Facility at Truman
After several years absence, we went to a
city commission meeting Tuesday evening just to see what we had been
missing. It was a decision with all the native savvy that impelled us to
go to Canada in March. Tops on the commission's agenda, and the subject
that had brought me out, was the debate over siting an assisted living
facility on four acres of the 35-acre parcel of land the Navy is giving
Key West at Truman Annex. The question is not whether such a facility is
needed — everyone agrees that it is — the question is where. After a
search that lasted a couple of years, it came down to the Truman Annex
or a parcel next to the botanical garden on Stock Island. The elderly in
the community wanted a decision; something definitive they could latch
onto that would prove the city really intended to address their needs
and was prepared to take the first steps.
No one at the meeting opposed the Truman
site, they simply felt the city was getting ahead of itself. They
pointed out that the city had hired a consultant to produce a master
plan for the 35 acres and argued that that plan should come first. Which
would be sensible planning. But sensible was not why most in the
audience were there. They wanted the city's promise and they wanted it
now.
The commission chambers were close to full
by the 6 p.m. start of the meeting with every single elderly person in
Key West in attendance. Assisted living was high on the agenda, but what
with the Pledge of Allegiance, a couple of awards to staff for stellar
service, and a six-month budget recap, it took two hours to get there.
First were letters from Virginia Panico
and Liz Kern urging passage. Then came an impassioned plea from Jean
Marie Weatherhead who told a compelling story of caring for her father
afflicted with Alzheimer's, working all the while as he spent two years
on the waiting list for help, the worry and the anxiety a constant in
her life and no place to go for assistance. "Pass this resolution," she
said simply. The audience, already in favor, was moved. Next was poor
George Halloran representing Last Stand. Halloran has been a city
commissioner and has often had to argue the unpopular side of issues as
he and Last Stand staunchly defended Key West against the Huns at the
gates. Once again he was cast into that role, and once again it was
lonesome standing amidst this pack of insistent seniors.
The resolution Tuesday night was not about
the good guys squaring off with the bad guys to deny Key West an
assisted living facility. This was about the good guys facing off with
other good guys to achieve the same end. But that night, the elders were
not willing to take an IOU from the city. They wanted the promise in
writing, and they were there in large numbers to emphasize the point.
Their opponents were few but they were
defending an excellent point. Why attempt the development of the 35
acres in a piecemeal fashion, the same kind of from-the-hip zoning that
has gotten us in so much trouble in the past. Why constrain the
architects and planners we have hired by excising a large and
exceedingly valuable piece of property from the whole. "Yeah, yeah," say
the elders. "We have already been waiting for two years. What guarantee
can you give us that it won't be another two years. Pass the resolution
and pass it now..."
Ed Swift, who has led the search committee
for two years, related the problems in finding a perfect site and how it
is important to have such a facility integrated into the rest of the
city, not isolated. Joan Higgs agreed strongly and then Sandy Higgs got
the microphone and instructed everyone who was present for this
particular issue to stand up. I was there as a reporter so protocol
dictates I should not demonstrate my feelings, but I've got to tell you,
if you are one of the two people sitting in a room of 300 standees and
you notice your ally, George Halloran, is looking particularly goofy and
could easily be mistaken for a sexual predator, you look for cover. I
pretended to drop my pencil and then scutter around under the seats as
if I had business there.
The seniors got what they wanted; who in
that room was going to vote against them? Surely not I.
— D.E. |
