Mayor Hafen Loves Henderson Seniors

Mayor Hafen was elected to Henderson, Nevada's highest office last November in a close race with City Councilman Steve Kirk. It is interesting that he received his strongest support from the older parts of Henderson (west side), while Kirk did better in the newer more upscale areas of the city such as Anthem. This is an indication that the neediest of Henderson's Seniors were more supportive than the well-to-do community.

Mayor Hafen is understandably proud of what he has been able to accomplish for the seniors of Henderson in his former capacity of city councilman, and plans to do much more as the Mayor. A fabulous new senior center is being built, and is scheduled for a grand opening in the fall. Hafen was among the first to propose this and was very instrumental in getting it funded. As a result of his close work with the Senior Advisory Commission, he was able to influence the design of the center to best support seniors needs.

When asked what message he would like to send to the senior citizen community, Mayor Andy Hafen said, "I want every senior citizen, along with all the other citizens of Henderson to know that I am totally available and accessible to them. I publish my home telephone number on the city's website, and I am absolutely serious about letting Henderson citizens call me whenever they want to ask me questions or inform me about an issue.

The mayor asked this reporter how he could support the seniors even better, and after thanking him for the outstanding help the Auxiliary gets from the Department of Parks and Recreation as well as Cultural Affairs, I told him that the biggest problem facing our senior community today is transportation. He is rightly proud of the Henderson Senior Center's bus transportation program as well as the Meal-on-Wheels, but he admitted that more needs to be done. He supports the effort to establish a Henderson affiliate of the ITN senior ride program, and promised to press the Regional Transit Commission to extend CAT bus service all the way to the new center on Racetrack Road.

Mayor Hafen committed to his continued support of the Henderson Seniors' Auxiliary, and promised to send a representative to their monthly board meetings, which are held on the second Tuesday of each month at 4pm in the Henderson Senior Center. While he declined my suggestion to issue a Mayor's Trophy challenge at our Charity Golf Outing November 6, he did agree to present the award to the winner of our Labor Day Henderson Chili Championship.