Socorro Senior Center. 1410 Ake Avenue

The Socorro Senior Center is set to reopen June 1. Transferring titles to vehicles and insurance coverage delayed the reopening, said Director Linda Mares.

Socorro County previously ran all three senior centers, but the North Central New Mexico Economic Development District and Area Agency on Aging ended the county’s contract earlier this year.

The Village of Magdalena is taking over running the Magdalena center, and the City of Socorro will run the Socorro center, while the fate of the Veguita center is still undetermined.

The Socorro center will provide food deliveries for people living in the Veguita area. At an April Socorro City Council meeting, Mayor Ravi Bhasker said that the city would ask for the county to donate the Veguita building, so that the city could run the center in Veguita without having to go back and forth with the county about operations. The county declined to donate the building.

At Tuesday’s Socorro County Commission meeting, County Manager Michael Hawkes asked the commissioners to consider turning the Veguita building into a community center.

The operating hours for the Socorro center will remain the same, 7 a.m. to 2 p.m. When it reopens, the center will also continue to pick up people who need a ride to get to the congregant meal service, but Socorro’s transportation department will take over other transportation, such as to doctor appointments, grocery shopping or pharmacy visits.

The senior center will still have recreational opportunities available like the pool tables, puzzles and TV. Congregant meals and home delivered meals will also still be served. However, the center will no longer offer the Covid grab-and-go meals.

Along with providing meals, the senior centers are important as a social space.

“Seniors need to be able to mingle, get out of their houses,” said Mares. “Sometimes we’re the only people that they see on a daily basis, so they love to come down and talk to us, to visit with friends.”

The new Socorro Senior Center number is 575-517-5059. Any seniors who need home delivered meals can contact the center for assistance.

 

Cathy Cook | El Defensor Chieftain Editor