For Immediate Release
June 6, 2022
Contact: Kyle Marksteiner
(575) 887-1191, kmarksteiner@cityofcarlsbadnm.com
The City of Carlsbad is in the process of moving the San Jose Senior Recreation Center to a newly renovated facility at 120 Kircher Street, Carlsbad Mayor Dale Janway has announced. The new facility will be known as the Alejandro Ruiz Senior Center, in memory of the Congressional Medal of Honor recipient.
“While we’re very excited about this move, we know this adjustment will be a challenge over the next few weeks,” Carlsbad Mayor Dale Janway said. “We ask for our residents to be patient with us as we make this transition. Thank you to our staff for working so hard on this move.”
The San Jose Senior Center, currently located at 2814 San Jose Boulevard, also serves as a meal site for the Southeast New Mexico Community Action Corporation. Beginning Thursday, June 9, 2022, the Nutritional Meals program will temporarily be located at the Head Start Building, located at 915 San Jose Boulevard. This will allow the City to move its kitchen and handle inspections.
Other senior center services, such as the fitness and recreation programs, will continue to operate out of the old facility during this transition period. During the week of June 27, services will be moved to the location on Kircher Street. Meal services will be offered at the Kircher location when the transition is complete.
“What this means is that there’s a two week period where we’ll be serving meals at the Head Start building, but offering all other services at the old location,” Mayor Janway said. “This isn’t a perfect scenario, but we expect it to be a short term inconvenience with a long term gain.”
The City of Carlsbad has been working on Phase I Renovations of this facility for a number of years. Funding assistance has come from the State of New Mexico Department of Finance and Administration through the 2018 Community Development Block Grant, and more recently, the New Mexico Aging and Long Term Services (NM ALTSD). Construction was delayed due to the COVID-19 pandemic and several construction-related delays.
The City is already working on Phase II funded through the NM ALTSD Capital Outlay program, and Phase III renovation and equipment funding was approved for additional capital outlay.
“Carlsbad is very proud of its status as an Age Friendly Community,” Janway said. “This newly-remodeled facility will allow us to continue to expand services for our seniors and improve on our partnership with SNMCAC.”
The City is planning a very special ribbon cutting ceremony to celebrate the newly remodeled facility and honor the family of Alejandro Ruiz who is a Carlsbad Hall of Fame inductee and who holds the highest most prestigious military combat award, the Congressional Medal of Honor, awarded the Bronze Star and Purple Heart. Future use for the property at 2814 San Jose Boulevard has not yet been determined.