Oliver House Complete, Final Allen Wilson Construction Phase Could Begin Early Next Year
Decatur Metro | September 18, 2012According to The Decatur Minute, construction of the Oliver House along Commerce Drive is now complete and seniors are moving in. The building includes 80 units.
With the first two phases of the redevelopment of Allen Wilson Terrace now complete, the final, construction of the third phase of 71 units of family housing could begin as early as January 2013, dependent on funding.
In related news, you may have noticed the blurb in the recent Decatur Focus that the Oliver House is looking for book donations and volunteer assistance with its new library…
The new building includes a library but they need books to fill the shelves. If you have gently used books to donate for the library in the Oliver House or if you have a library background and would be willing to help create and organize this new library, please contact Melvin Whitlock, resident services supervisor, 404-373-4491 ext. 12, or mlw@decaturha.org, to sign up to volunteer or to make arrangements to drop off books.
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Yes! A place to donate all my husband’s books that are causing foundation sinking! Especially the fifth copy of the same book! Seriously, this is great. I like a good place to give books that we are done with. This appeals to me a lot more than giving books to a for-profit group like Better World Books.
I’m glad something is being built downtown. Perhaps when they sell the lot portion fronting Trinity it will serve as a catalyst for more downtown residential development.
There seems to be a lot of developers sitting on projects (315, Trinity Triangle, etc.) when you hear about “the great need for apartments” in the Master Plan and Decatur Focus. I know the economy isn’t great, but it seems like developers are getting apartment development loans in the Old Fourth Ward along the beltline and in a lot of other areas between Decatur and downtown Atlanta.
Thanks. I especially appreciate that Reverend Melvin Whitlock is in charge of this. In addition to being an ordained minister (outside of any responsibilities to the Decatur Housing Authority), he is also a Boy Scout leader and a Decatur High School graduate. Good Luck Reverend Whitlock!
Isn’t there a library 2 blocks away? With books already on the shelves? A place where you can donate used books to support new book sales?
just sayin…
Getting to the Decatur library could be a real challenge for some of the residents, if you don’t already know.
Bah. Most of them can walk the half mile. And for the ones who can’t, our resources would be better spent buying them hoverounds http://goo.gl/ihANi (Nine out of Ten Hoveround owners get their electric wheelchair at little or no cost!)
As an added benefit, the electrically propelled literary seniors could help patrol the library without the need for the extra police presence that people were calling for in response to the latest “incidents” there. Two birds, one stone!
Yeah, I’m joking. Or am I?
Grant the Hoveround brigade authority to write tickets to skateboarding scofflaws, jaywalkers, and the like, and you’ve knocked down at least one more bird.
Tickets? bah. Give them cane whacking privileges.
The Decatur Library is a half-mile walk away (according to Google maps).
I guess the library is meant to be more like a home library for the many low income frail elderly who live there. I do not see to many of them at the downtown library now. I wonder why?
Because they’re mobility impaired, to use the PC term.
That is why I will also begin to give my already read books to the Oliver House! This is a great thing and helps me feel good today!
To clarify-I intended my comment as a response to the false notion that the Decatur library is only two blocks away and that the elder members of that community could easily walk there. Sorry if it was taken as inflammatory.
Wow, this topic sure took a negative tone. Not sure how that happens when all someone did was request books for a small library for elderly people. Shades of ajc.com here I’m afraid. Sure hope it doesn’t end up that way on this site. Or maybe I’m just being overly-sensitive today.
Seriously and for real!! Ridiculous!!!
Sure spurred me to move it up my “to do” list! They’re also looking for recorded books. I just called, and old school cassette books are welcomed.
Can’t say I like it either.
I think sometimes we are so afraid of getting old and infirm that we avert our eyes and minimize the presence of the elderly in our midst. Some folks don’t realize you are always one bad stumble from being mobility impaired.
Most senior communities, whether they be residential, assisted living, or nursing home, have some kind of small “library”. I know this from visiting various relatives who reside in them. Some seniors move to a residential facility before they have any disabilities but the impetus to leave one’s home is usually that daily living in one’s home has become too difficult. Many elderly give up their cars for a combination of physical, medical, and financial reasons. A trip to the store or the doctor is a big event that requires organization, planning, and a decent shuttle system. Some senior communities provide shuttles to less essential facilities like the public library but it is periodic access, e.g. weekly, not when one has finished a book, and often schedules conflict–e.g. a shuttle and physical therapy appointments or in home care visits. If anyone thinks that walking from Commerce to the Decatur Library is reasonable with the assistance of a walker, they have not accompanied an elderly relative recently from their room to the dining hall via elevator–it’s a 20 minute trip for a 30 minute dinner then 20 minutes back to the room! Wheelchairs are even harder for the elderly. Even otherwise healthy, young, active paraplegics have trouble crossing the street in Decatur in a wheelchair, never mind frail elderly with multiple problems.
So I’m a big supporter of donating books directly to the Oliver House library. But you have to sort a bit–not everything I read is neutral enough for folks brought up in the 1930s. Everything racy can be donated to the library!
“But you have to sort a bit–not everything I read is neutral enough for folks brought up in the 1930s. Everything racy can be donated to the library!” — Don’t make assumptions, it winds up being patronizing at the very least. Donate whatever you have, let the recipients pass on anything they’re not interested in.
Tried that at one “library” and was asked by the Director to be a bit more careful about what I left there. I speak from experience! I really didn’t think that what I was leaving was that shocking. I wish I could remember what it was. But they did like the biography of Julia Child!
Having spent lots of time around elderly people the past few years, I’m particularly sensitive to how easily they can feel patronized and even infantilized by well-meaning attempts to honor their (presumed) sensibilities. In any case, it seems to me an organization soliciting and accepting donations should not be too persnickety about doing their own sorting/filtering. Then again, maybe your personal library runs to much racier material than I imagined!
To be fair to the senior community in mind, it was an in-house library that solicited leftover books from residents; it doesn’t actively solicit from the outside. I have to travel when I visit so I often have reading material that I finish while there. I thought it was a smart idea to donate it to the facility library, rather than carry it back in my luggage. I was gently informed that they carefully screen what goes in the library. Having looked over the shelves a bit, I would say that they were screening on the basis of blandness.
Would they like my stack of this year’s Southern Living magazines?
Email Mr. Whitlock (email address above) and ask. I think it would be great but it probably depends on their space issues. Space is often tight. I’d love a place to donate our National Geographic (kids don’t use them much for reports anymore, now that Internet searches and photos are so easy–and here I had carefully saved years worth for that purpose!), Audubon, Discovery, and Consumer Reports magazines.
….and I’ll take my own advice and ask him about whether to consider the suitability of books. Might as well hear it from the horse’s mouth. I hate to waste a book or magazine. I want to donate to whoever can use them, not just shift the responsibility for disposal.
The DeKalb County jury clerk is always glad to have magazines for the assembly room.
A friend who often goes to nursing homes recently put out a call for recent-ish magazines for the residents in nursing homes and personal care homes so you may want to check with nursing homes nearby (there are a number on N. Decatur near the hospital and a smattering around the area) where you can make periodic drop-offs of your periodicals. I would think that both Southern Living and National Geographic would appeal to a lot of residents! She also suggested things like People and other gossipy magazines are fun for residents to read.