Senior Center debt free

November 19, 2012, 6:25 pm by Adam Troxtell

Invited guests at the Marble Falls Senior Activity Center’s celebration on Friday. Left to right, Mayor George Russell and his wife, Cynthia; Building Industry Association Co-Chair of Finance Terry Pilley, whose husband, Mike Pilley, was the contractor that built the Senior Center expansion in 2007; former city council member Raymond Whitman and his wife, Tammy; and Jeff Bingham, who served as the American Bank of Texas loan officer when the Senior Center mortgaged their building.

The Marble Falls Senior Activity Center had its mortgage papers symbolically burned when members celebrated being debt free in a luncheon and ceremony Friday.

The center was packed with attendees, well-wishers and officials who helped create and maintain the center as a place for the Marble Falls senior community to gather and socialize.

"I want to thank all of you for coming,” Margie Phipps, treasurer for the Senior Activity Center board, said to attendees and honored guests at the Friday luncheon. "Because without you, the Senior Center wouldn’t exist.”

President of the Senior Center Arnold Holden took the position in May 2011, and he said one of his main goals was to have the building paid off by the time he left in two years’ time.

"I said I’d like to see this building paid off before I leave office,” Holden said. "When I started as president, we lacked about $25,000. It took everybody to do it, but we paid it off five years early.” Holden and his wife, Lucille, said everyone who paid membership dues threw in some extra money at fundraisers and supported the Senior Center over the years made paying off their debts possible.

For the full story, see Tuesday's Highlander.