Senior citizens in Tamaqua are searching for a home for their organization and they're asking Tamaqua Borough Council to help them.

Joan Dietrich first approached council in April asking for assistance to procure a building where the senior citizens in the community could meet regularly, and store the tables, chairs and other equipment they use for their social meetings.Before the sale of the Tamaqua Community Center, the group met there weekly.Dietrich approached council again this month to see if any progress had been made regarding her earlier requests. Dietrich had been working with Mary Linkevich, the former Director of Community Development, who left her position last month.Dietrich said that Linkevich had made several inquiries to various county agencies to see what funding could be available to help with the request, but had not been able to secure any commitments.Dietrich explained that the organization, which has about 60 active members, with closer to 100 paying dues, is limited because they do not currently have a permanent facility they can call home. Dietrich said that the group meets weekly at the Tamaqua YMCA, but must set up and break down the tables and games every week."You can't expect senior citizens to keep doing this kind of thing," she said, citing the advanced age and limited physical abilities of the members.Dietrich also asked how the Tamaqua Community Art Center could flourish and thrive, and appears to receive a lot of funding, while the senior citizen group depends on the support of their members.Finally, she asked if resources from the borough could be made available to assist the seniors to set up at the YMCA if a permanent home could not be found.Councilman Micah Gursky was quick to clarify that the art center functions independently of the borough and writes its own grants and obtains its own funding.Council President David Mace said that when Linkevich had been working, she got to work on the seniors' request immediately, but has since left the position, and with her work being divided among other members of the borough staff until a replacement is hired, there was only so much that could be done.Dietrich said that she has been told that the Tamaqua senior citizens group is the largest in the county, and said that several other communities that have smaller organizations have been able to procure funding from the county to sustain their own facilities.Mace responded that he is unaware of what arrangements the other communities have or how the groups are funded."I don't know that it's an apples to apples comparison," he said.Dietrich said that perhaps an able-bodied volunteer from the community might step forward to assist the seniors in their current location, and council members said that as soon as a new Director of Community Development comes on board, they will try to continue the efforts started by Linkevich.