By Jessica Mathews / news@whmi.com


A new community center with multiple purposes is set to be constructed in Putnam Township and a groundbreaking event is planned this evening.

The new center will be built on the grounds of the Township Hall at 3280 W. M-36 behind the Fire Station. Supervisor Dennis Brennan says what started out as a need for a new, larger, safer Senior Center has now grown into a vision of a Community Center that will serve the needs of other sectors of the community.

The center, separated from the Township Hall by a firewall, will have a large meeting and function room, a warming kitchen, a food pantry, a craft room and plenty of storage. He says the township offices will also benefit from extra storage space for election equipment, assessing records, and other township records and equipment. An expanded parking lot will contain many more parking spaces, especially for handicapped parking, something that was said to be lacking at the existing Senior Center on Mower Road.

The Mower Road building will be vacated and placed up for sale when the project is completed. The new center will also be utilized during elections as all four precincts will vote at the Township’s enlarged campus and there will be plenty of room for the increased need for absentee voter tabulation.

A groundbreaking event is planned at 5pm at the site where township officials will be joined by Senior Center Director Patrice Rensch, representatives of the contractor, Schafer Construction, and representatives of the project’s architect, Lindhout Associates.

The project schedule calls for construction to begin in June and final inspections and substantial completion by the end of January 2022.