Senior Center Coordinator Retires

After seven years of organizing and overseeing numerous activities and membership growth at the Pinole Senior Center, Coordinator Janet Bilbas preferred early retirement to likely cuts in pay and in work hours. Last Wednesday, Bilbas voluntarily ended her tenure.

The city's fiscal condition largely drove her decision. Pinole's city employee unions have taken or are negotiating concessions in compensation. The city council has put the recreation department on notice that it can't rely on funding and that it must become as financially self-sustaining as possible.

"It really came done to realizing what is better for myself as far as a retirement plan and those things," Bilbas said. "It really was the financial situation. Sad but true."

Among her accomplishments since taking the position in 2004 have been overseeing steady growth in the number of members, which is now about 1,400 seniors, 50 or older, from Pinole and nearby cities. The center supports myriad classes, workshops, exercise programs, travel opportunities, weekday lunches, hobbies, legal advice, a hair salon, dances and other events.

Bilbas remembers an exchange program with China as a milestone. It included hosting Chinese visitors in Pinole and trips for her and a Pinole delegation to China, where she saw huge operations. For example, there were lunches for 1,000 people a day at a 26-story hotel that reserved two floors for senior services.

Equipped with bachelor's and master's degrees in recreation administration from San Francisco State University, Bilbas has worked about 35 years in recreation.

"If we're doing our job right it looks like we're doing nothing but having fun and people don't understand what we've done to get to that moment. We've had to do our work to get people to come in and enjoy themselves," she described the job.

She said working in recreation is like running any organization that requires dealing with personalities, budgets — and with seniors — health and social issues. With its many members, events and activities, the senior center hasn't reached capacity, Bilbas said. The energy of active seniors is up to the task.

"You can always have a building and you can offer all kinds of things but it really doesn't matter until they come," she said. "This is a unique  center where the people really make it such an enjoyable place. I don't think I've worked with a more professional group of people, more dedicated, unselfish, easy to see the ultimate goal of what is best for the whole center."

Johnathon Torres, the assistant coordinator, will take over the daily tasks at the center until the city finds a replacement for Bilbas. The center's board of directors will participate in the selection for a new coordination.

"I like to believe I've put down a good foundation so the next person can just simply build on that," Bilbas said. "I don't think the Pinole Senior Center will ever go away. It will always be a unique place."

Bilbas won't retire completely. She will work part-time in the El Cerrito Recreation Department, where she worked before coming to Pinole. She probably will concentrate in special events, she said.

"As they always tell me around here, I'm too young to retire and they can't imagine me sitting at home and doing nothing," she said. "So I'll do that and work on my golf game."

A party to honor Bilbas will be held at the senior center at a date to be determined in July.