Seniors fight for community center

BUFFALO, N.Y. (WIVB) - Senior citizens on Buffalo's east side are fuming and say they're not giving up in the fight to take back their community center.

Norm Bakos said, "We've reached the point where we said, 'hell no, we are mad as hell and we ain't going to take it anymore, and we are going to reclaim our building!'"

The building is the Schiller Park Senior Center, which Bakos, as an East side councilman, and many seniors, helped build 28 years ago.

But now they are holding protests, and threatening to stage a 60s type sit-in, to regain control of the building, and many of the activities they have enjoyed all these years.

Connie Orlowski of Schiller Park Seniors, Inc. said, "We want to be heard that we are seniors, and most of them have been here since the place opened in 1980, it opened up!" (June 26, 2009)

But councilman Richard Fontana told the seniors he has worked out a deal with Schiller Park Community Services, the group based in the Arthur Center across the street, that could lead to more of the seniors on the board, which also controls the senior center.

Fontana said, "Hopefully they will agree to some type of mediation, and then we will have an election hopefully within a couple of weeks to appoint four or five board members to the new board."

So, the Schiller Park Seniors called off their July 4th weekend sit-in, at least for now.

Bakos said, "Independence Day, we were going to declare ourselves de facto squatters, and we were going to take over the building."

But Thursday afternoon, the seniors called that off.

Councilman Richard Fontana told News 4, he is trying to bring the two groups together for a meeting sometime next week, before the seniors' self-imposed deadline for holding their sit-in.