HANCEVILLE — It’s taken a while and forced the city to scrounge for extra funding, but a new senior center at Hanceville is finally within sight.

After months of delays forced by rising construction costs, the Hanceville City Council signed off this week on a bid to build the new facility, which will occupy a corner site at the city’s C.W. Day Park. The council awarded the construction work to Adams Building Company of Blountsville, whose winning low bid of $415,000 still tallies well above the $300,000 the city originally had expected to spend on the project when it commissioned building plans last year.

Mayor Kenneth Nail said at Thursday’s council meeting that building the center was never in doubt, though the delays have meant that some of the longtime visitors at Hanceville’s existing center on the city’s east side will never live to enjoy using the new facility.

“We told our folks that we were going to build our seniors a new senior center, and we’re doing it,” said Nail. “We did have to go back to the drawing board a couple of times to figure out how to make the costs work. But what’s really a shame is that there have probably been half a dozen people locally who’ve passed away since we first started talking about this. We’re really happy that it’s finally happening, but you hate to see how the delay has affected things.”

Months ago, the city’s public works department saved startup costs by completing site preparation work in-house in anticipation of successfully bidding the project late last year. Since then, the ground has sat vacant and ready for construction, anchoring the park’s northwest corner.

Designed by Hanceville native Tim Burney, the new center will replace the cramped and aging senior center, which lies tucked away off a residential side street in the city’s Stepville community. In addition to being fully ADA-compliant, the new center will be easily accessible from U.S. Highway 31 and, said Nail, will see a lot of activity thanks to its central location, larger size, and proximity to other events at the park.