COMMUNITY
Menlo Park Plans To Relocate Onetta Harris Community Center (Ohcc) Programs As It Prepares To Replace It With A MultiGenerational And Multi-Storied Community Center Thanks To Facebook
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n December 16, 2019, Facebook offered to fund and develop a new multigenerational community center and library at the current site of the Onetta Harris Community Center, the Menlo Park Senior Center and the Belle Haven Youth Center (child care), near Kelly Park. The Menlo Park City Council accepted the offer in January and on February 11 appropriated $1 million for relocating senior, recreation and child care services. The project is expected to take 18-24 months to complete with grand opening celebrations in the second half of 2022. An Interim Services Plan presented to the Menlo Park Council called for the relocation of senior services to the Arrillaga Family Recreation Center on the Civic Center Campus at 701 Laurel Street in Menlo Park. The plan also called for increasing transportation offerings to the Civic Center Campus for Menlo Park seniors and other residents in the Belle Haven Community. As for the youth and adult programs that the Onetta Harris Community Center offered, such as summer camps, the plan sought to explore ways to accommodate summer camps in 2021 and 2022 at Burgess Park/Civic Center, including the possible installation of portables and the expansion of recreation offerings in expectation of
increased demand from the Belle Haven neighborhood. In an apparent acknowledgement of the income disparity with the rest of Menlo Park, the plan called for the modification of the fee structure on a pilot basis to encourage participation of Menlo Park residents regardless of ability to pay. For its child-care program, the city is exploring a partnership with local schools in the Belle Haven neighborhood to house it in temporary portables. Some residents are, however, not happy with the city plans to relocate services to the Arrillaga Family Recreation Center insisting that the city
JULY - AUGUST 2020 EL RAVENSWOOD 11
