Proceeds from sale to benefit future Henning Senior Center

By Chad Koenen

Publisher

The Henning Senior Citizens Center will soon be under new ownership, but for the groups who frequently call the facility home, little will be changed. 

During a special city council meeting on Thursday afternoon, the Henning City Council accepted an offer from the Henning Christian Fellowship group to purchase the city-owned senior citizens building. The city council had put the building up for sale with a realtor to see if a group or individual would be interested in purchasing the facility. The building was listed for $60,000.

The lone offer the city has received to date was $32,000 from the Henning Christian Fellowship group who meets regularly at the facility.

Henning Mayor Darren Wiese said the goal of listing the building through a realtor was to be transparent and to allow everyone who was interested in purchasing the facility an equal opportunity to do so. Prior to the meeting Wiese said he reached out to four other groups who have all expressed an interest in purchasing the building. He said he encouraged them to bring an offer to the table if they were still interested.

“I did reach out to them and said look, bring an offer,” he said. “The whole goal of us using a realtor was to be transparent.”

Wiese said if the city moved forward with selling the building he would like to see a long-term solution established for where the senior citizens can meet and play cards. The Henning Christian Fellowship group has agreed to allow the senior citizens to continue to play cards in the building moving forward. However, Wiese said he would like to see the proceeds from the sale be in a fund to benefit the senior citizens group to either remodel another building or construct a new one down the road.

Henning City Councilman Scott Hart agreed that the proceeds from the sale will need to be put in a fund to construct a new senior citizens facility in the future. Since no one else has came forward with an offer, Hart said he would be in favor of selling the senior citizens center and begin planning for a new facility down the road. 

“Every time I drive by there it is being used,” said Hart, who added the city would need to put money into the aging building if it were to keep the building for the city. “This money I want to go towards a new place and a new location.”

Henning City Councilman Wes Johnson said he was also in favor of selling the building if the proceeds were put away to benefit the eventual construction of a senior citizens center. 

While the Henning Christian Fellowship group offered $32,000 for the building, the city council countered with an offer of $33,000. The additional $1,000 will be used to update the survey of the property so an alley can be turned over to B&D Foods. Wiese said this will allow B&D Foods to have access to the back of their facility as it has in the past. 

While the Henning Christian Fellowship group has agreed to allow the senior citizens to continue to play cards in the facility moving forward, there will be some extensive remodeling that will be completed in the building in the near future. As a result, the senior citizens will be temporarily displaced. The city council agreed to let the senior citizens to play cards at the city hall during the construction process.

The city council approved selling the building by a 3-0 vote, council members Jim Haberer and Tammy Fosse were not at last week’s special city council meeting, and will eye a closing date of Dec. 28, 2022.