Peters Township Meals on Wheels eyes Sirena Taco as new location
It is a bit of a Catch-22 for officials from the Peters Township Meals on Wheels program and the township.
Meals on Wheels desperately wants to stay in its current location on the top floor of the Peters Volunteer Fire Department on East McMurray Road. And the fire department, pinched for space, needs the floor and the 5,000 square feet of space occupied by Meals on Wheels for training and offices.
For nearly a year now, when the township said it would not renew the nonprofit’s lease when it expires in December 2017, the organization has been looking for space suitable to its needs and its budget.
Susan Hanawalt, Meals on Wheels executive director, said her group now is looking at the closed Sirena Taco Joint space in Donaldson’s Crossroads.
“We can sublet it from the restaurant owner until her lease runs out in 2020, but we have to work out a satisfactory lease with the Zamagias now before we can do that,” she said about the Donaldson’s Crossroads owner. “We can’t pay commercial prices so we are asking for a reasonable and fixed-price lease from them to start in 2020.”
Meals on Wheels has been at its current location since 2008, when it moved from St. David’s Episcopal Church. The nonprofit pays the township $4,000 a month for its space in the fire department building.
Paul Lauer, township manager, said ways to financially help Meals on Wheels relocate are being discussed. When the township announced its decision not to renew the lease, it offered the nonprofit $18,000 if it vacated the space before its lease expired.
One option that has not been offered by the township is the former Rolling Hills Country Club, which the township and Peters Township School District are in the process of acquiring.
“No, this has never been discussed,” said Lauer.
Meals on Wheels, which serves 200 people locally, has been applying for grants to cover the costs it might incur when it moves, said Hanawalt, adding that it hopes to make a decision on the Sirena Taco space soon.
“The township has said they might possibly be able to give us some amount of money to help with the move, depending on how valuable the architect thinks our improvements were to the building we are in now,” she said. “We have given Paul the bills for all of the leasehold improvements that we made to the empty windowless social hall.”