Lava Hot Springs Senior Center seeking funds for building refurbishments

LAVA HOT SPRINGS, Idaho (KIFI)– The board of directors of the Lava Hot Springs Senior Center is seeking grant money and other funds to maintain and repair the historic building.

The Lava Hot Springs Community and Senior Center was originally built in 1936, and has hosted weddings, parties, funerals, and weekly community lunch services.

MarthaFae Frymire, chairman of the center's board of directors, said that building maintenance was neglected for years, and now she and her fellow board members are trying to restore the building to a town gathering place.

"We're trying to revive the feeling of community here in Lava," said Frymire. "Our locals need a center, a place where they say, 'I can go there [and] have fun, I can go there and meet my friends'... so we're trying to develop that, and to do that we need it to be safe and accessible."

On Friday morning, Rocky Mountain Power presented the senior center staff with a grant check for $4,500. The money will be used to replace windows in the building with new, energy-efficient glass to help the center save on heating and cooling costs.

Frymire and her colleagues are seeking further funds to make other necessary fixes–including replacing the mortar on the building's vast stonework and repairing the concrete steps to the front doors.

The board of directors said they hope to complete the repairs in time to celebrate a big birthday.

"We'd like to be done by 2026 so we can have our 90th birthday celebration for the building," said Frymire. "We've got some plans–we're going to have a 1930s dance, a lot of people come and tell their memories of the building, and it's going to be a big thing. But we have until 2026 to get it done."

The Lava Hot Springs Community and Senior Center Board of Directors is also accepting donations to make the building maintenance projects possible.

For more information, you can visit the Lava Hot Springs Community and Senior Center website.