SAN ANTONIO — She is a grand old lady in need of a facelift.
The Ella Austin Community Center has been serving east San Antonio families for generations - so it is time for a long overdue upgrade.
$23 million dollars in bond money and city funds are about to make a transformative change to the venerable institution and city leaders want to know what the community wants the most moving forward.
A public input process is underway now.
The building is already undergoing renovation so it is mostly vacant. The children who squealed with delight in the child care center have moved on for now.
Non-profits who have called the building home are making due with temporary quarters.
The buzz of community has been replaced by the whir of power tools.
And the place that has meant so much to so many for so very long is becoming a new safe harbor.
Long-time community servant Linda Tippins said she has been a fan of the center since she was a small girl, and she remembers Ella Austin, the center's namesake, well.
Tippins said when the former Ralph Waldo Emerson school took on a new life, it was natural to name the center for Ella.
"She was the first person who had an orphanage over here on the east side for black children and Mexican American children. There was no place for them to go," Tippins said, adding that the commitment to building a better community is alive and well even now.
"What is Ella Austin? We are all Ella Austin," Tippins enthused.
"I am so excited about this because what is coming up for Ella is the community is getting a chance to say this is what we want to see Ella in her future," said President and CEO of the center, Beverly Watts Davis.
The future looks bright, thanks to the wide variety of programs that take flight here.
"Over time Ella has had as many as 85 programs going on here," Watts Davis said.
Programs like Public Allies, a division of Americorps, where young adults come to serve and be powerful agents for positive change.
"The community needs somewhere to go for healing. With all the violence that's going on around here, there's no place to go for training. For somebody to say it's all right," Tippins said.
Planners say maybe there will be a performing arts center, basketball courts for kids, health and human services, and as always, a place of refuge.
"We want Ella to be a resiliency hub so when things go wrong there's a place for people to come and get help," Watts Davis said. "What I like to say is twinkle to wrinkle and cradle to grave, all those services here in one place."
The second in a series of public input meetings was scheduled for Monday at 6pm at St. Paul United Methodist Church at 508 North Center Street.