AUSTINTOWN — Though no official opening date has been determined for the Austintown Senior Center, the center is ready for when it gets the green light, thanks to some new tools that will keep the air and surfaces clean.

“We’re just waiting for the governor to allow us to open,” said Jessica Ricker, senior center technology director, who has been attending meetings with the Ohio Department of Aging and the Ohio Association of Senior Centers.

Ricker told township officials this week that many local seniors are feeling “antsy” with the center closed since mid-March.

“A lot of them are pretty lonely,” Ricker said. “A lot of them, this was their family.”

Ricker said she is hoping that by the start of August the senior center will know when it can reopen. In the meantime, she and director Jim Henshaw have been working hard to get the best tools to keep the center clean once members can return.

The center has purchased several ultraviolet light cleaners that go in the heating, ventilation and air conditioning system and kill viruses, bacteria and mold in the air. The devices cost the center about $6,000 each and will kill the common cold as well as the COVID-19 virus.

Three portable ozone generators for each of the center’s three main rooms, as well as smaller ozone generators for restrooms, will be used to sanitize surfaces such as tables and couches. An electrostatic fogger, which cost the center about $350 including materials to run it, will provide additional surface sanitization.

Members entering the building will pass through an infrared thermal scanner, which can take the temperature of a group of people at once. Henshaw said he has offered to lend the relatively portable scanner to other departments if they have larger meetings where attendees’ temperatures must be taken before entry.

Everyone entering the senior center will be required to wear masks and sign in, so there is a record of who was at the center and when.

Ricker said some of the center’s more popular activities, such as bingo and yoga, will likely be split into two sessions to reduce the number of people in a room. Other classes that require communal equipment or close proximity to others — such as puzzles, mahjong, ballroom dancing and fencing — will be canceled until further notice.

Only three or four people will be allowed at a table, and tables will be spaced 6 feet apart, Ricker said.

Instead of serving hot meals, the center may switch to cold grab-and-go lunches.

“We’re trying to make it as safe as possible because we know our members are over the age of 60,” Ricker said.

avugrincic@tribtoday.com