CEDAR CITY — Well over 100 people attended the grand opening ceremony for the newly remodeled and expanded Iron County Cedar City Senior Center on Saturday.

After the building improvements were discussed for the past few years, the effort was given a shot in the arm when CARES Act funding enabled construction to be completed in a relatively short amount of time.

“We had some money left over and I thought, well, wouldn’t it be awesome and I can’t think of a better use of COVID funds,” Iron County Commissioner Paul Cozzens told the assembled audience at the grand opening. “Our seniors were packed in here, they didn’t have room to spread out and I thought what better way to help our seniors than to add on to the center and give them more room to spread out and have social distancing.”

The building improvements added over 5,000 square feet of usable space at the center, doubling the overall size of the facility.

“I’ve been so worried about our seniors being locked up. They need to get out and participate and associate,” Cozzens said. “So we’re really excited to have the extra space. We’re grateful to everybody who had a part in this and we’re grateful we were able to use the CARES Act money to pay for this whole project.”

Curtis Crawford, director of the senior center for the past six years, said the additional space and building improvements were a long time coming.

“This is something that’s really been needed for a very, very long time. We’ve outgrown ourselves,” Crawford said. “Over the past few years, all of our mornings, afternoons and most evenings were full of activities. So this new addition really takes that pressure off and allows now more room to grow.”

The Cedar City Senior Center, located at 489 E. 200 South, had to close for many months during the first year of the pandemic. While that allowed construction and improvements to be made, the time off really hurt seniors who missed out on opportunities to socialize and recreate at the center while they were socially isolated at home.

“That is a big concern we have,” Crawford said. “I think that’s why they’re so excited to come out today.”

The center in Cedar City, along with the separate Iron County Senior Center in Parowan, are tentatively scheduled to be open for activities on April 6. 

When the facilities do open, pandemic measures will still be in place including wearing masks and social distancing.

“We will do the best we can to do the correct protocols for COVID-19 to keep them safe,” Crawford said. 

Citizens were shown the new game room, featuring pool tables, a ping pong table and other tables for games and puzzles. And they got to tour the large new assembly hall, which will have exercise equipment, weights and mats for working out, yoga and exercising.

And dancing. There’s plenty of room in the new space for dancing. Other activities at the center include bingo, bridge, ham radio, ceramics and zumba classes. 

Friends Karen Arzate and Angie Zacarias visited from Enoch on Saturday to check out the new facility. 

“I just wanted to reminisce, see how different it is from what it was like before,” Arzate said. “It’s such a big improvement. There’s so much more activities for the seniors.”

Among those taking in the multitude of activities are those that call themselves “The Quilt Guild,” which consists of a large group of seniors who like to sew and socialize and meet every Thursday at the center.

“We love to sew,” Zacarias said. “Now we have these new long tables to sew on and this big bright room to work in. I love it, it’s just great. And I like the fact that there’s an elevator for us.”

Head cook Dale Davis said getting seniors out to the center for its regular lunch schedule will be welcome after the pandemic had them delivering lunches to their homes through Meals on Wheels.

Subject to change, regular lunches at the senior center will start again at the beginning of May.

“It’s just amazing the amount of people that we have had calling, waiting to see when we’re going to be opened just so that they can see their friends, even if it’s over lunch,” Davis said.

Cedar City News reporter Jeff Richards contributed to this story.

Click on photo to enlarge it, then use your left-right arrow keys to cycle through the gallery.

Copyright St. George News, SaintGeorgeUtah.com LLC, 2021, all rights reserved.