House moves home

By Tania Martin
OLINDA Community House will now call the town’s Senior Citizens Hall home.
After 20 years the community house has outgrown its old premises at Olinda Primary School and is getting ready for the big move later this month.
Lisa Gray, coordinator, said while the number of classes have grown since opening in 1987, the size of the house has remained the same.
“Our relocation to Olinda Senior Citizens Hall offers the community house the opportunity to expand our activities in a central and accessible community space,” she said.
Ms Gray said the senior’s hall in Olinda-Monbulk Road contains a number of rooms that could be used for a range of activities by the local community.
“We hold over 3000 hours of activities at the house and the current location is just not big enough,” she said.
Ms Gray said the move will be an amalgamation of services with the senior citizen and is not a bid to take over the club. “The seniors will still retain the use of the hall but we will take over the maintenance responsibilities and coordination of programs at the centre,” she said.
Ms Gray said one of the main issues with the old house was the location because it was hidden next to the school and not many people knew where to find it. She said there was also problems with limited parking and there was no inside toilet or disabled access.
“We are looking forward to the move and have been working closely with the seniors on programs for local older people,” Ms Gray said.