Latin Chamber to run senior center

By Timothy Pratt

Friday, Dec. 10, 2004 | 9:48 a.m.

The Las Vegas Housing Authority has agreed to draw up a lease with the Latin Chamber of Commerce allowing the chamber to run a Hispanic senior center downtown.

The decision in an ad hoc advisory board meeting Wednesday will help guarantee the Arturo Cambeiro Senior Center's survival. It nearly shut down in October under a previous manager.

The board, made up of private and public agencies interested in keeping alive the only senior center geared specifically for the booming population of Hispanics in the Las Vegas Valley, has been meeting since the Nevada Association of Latin Americans unexpectedly announced Oct. 13 that the association couldn't afford to support the center.

In Wednesday's meeting, the Housing Authority confirmed that it retained ownership of the center and could transfer management of the center to the chamber as long as it was used for seniors to obtain low-priced meals, English-as-a-second language classes, medical care and other services.

"Everyone is satisfied with the determination that the Las Vegas Housing Authority is owner of the building to the best of our knowledge and as long it is used for seniors no one has any problem," said Richard Martinez, deputy executive director of the housing authority.

"Now we need to cement the relationship," he said, referring to the need for a lease.

Chamber officials said they would try to have a draft of the lease ready by January.

Chamber Executive Director and board Chairman Otto Merida also reviewed in the meeting a series of private and public donations given to the center in the last two months, which he said costs about $230,000 a year to keep open.

Those funds include $68,000 in unused federal Community Development Block Grant money approved for the center by the Las Vegas City Council, $54,600 from the state Division for Aging Services, $15,000 from MGM Mirage, $5,000 from U.S. Bank, and donated renovations from Bentar Construction worth about $15,000, Merida said.

The construction company has painted the center and has made needed repairs required by the Clark County Health District. It is also improving the center's landscaping.

Conversations are also under way to obtain a grant from the National Alliance for Hispanic Health, a Washington-based nonprofit organization, Merida said.

As well, Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev., has pledged support for the center, Merida said.

He said getting such a range of private and public funds behind the Cambeiro Senior Center has been "an easy sell."

"People are sensitive about seniors," he said.

Merida, who as a chamber official said he would occasionally have lunch with the dozens of seniors who use the neighboring center -- located directly north of the chamber at 232 N. Maryland Parkway -- said he also became more sensitive to their plight after the October announcement.

One thing that helped convince him to get the chamber to take over the center was the testimony of an 80-year-old widower who said he thought of killing himself when he learned that he wouldn't be able to see his friends at the center every day.

Older Hispanics would be living with their families if they were still in their home countries, he said. But here, the center replaced family.

"I had never really thought about the loneliness they feel," Merida said. "That's when I thought, 'This is something worth getting into.' "