Gail Shaivitz intimately knows the 1300 block of Reisterstown Road in Pikesville. The parcel was home to her old elementary school and, later, the senior center she directed for 20 years.
Thursday ? on a trip back from her Florida home ? she hardly recognized the place.
“I can?t believe this space!” she gushed. “We were so cramped. I mean, we had our renovations, but nothing of this magnitude.”
Shaivitz joined Baltimore County officials to reopen the Pikesville senior center and library after nine months of renovations and expansion. The $3.6 million project provided an extra 3,500 square feet for each, including a new activity center for infants, large-type lounge, express checkout in the library, new classrooms and a state-of-the-art fitness facility in the senior center.
Customers said the nine months of construction ? which forced them to travel to other senior centers for classes and use a “mini” library until two weeks ago, when in closed altogether ? was well worth the wait. They said the library?s old ceiling contained exposed, noisy pipes and they complained of poor lighting and the single entrance and exit.
“It?s light years,” said Elinor Sklar, a member of the Friends of the Pikesville Library. “It would be so busy all the time. It was a total mob scene.”
Calling it “our pride and joy,” senior center volunteer Estelle Roll said members are most excited about the fitness room, where glass walls overlook the library.
“I will definitely use the fitness center,” Roll said. “I broke my ankle a few weeks ago and I couldn?t walk ? but I didn?t change my eating habits.”
Arnold Eppel, director of the county?s Department of Aging, said plans for a new senior center in Woodlawn and the county?s 20th center at a location he declined to disclose are in the works.
LIBRARY IMPROVEMENTS
» New children?s activity center and story time room
» Two express checkouts and return stations
» Magazine lounge
» Expanded large-type browsing area
» New checkout and information desks
» Improved teen space, seating
» Improved lighting
» New shelving, carpeting
» Refurbished restrooms
