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STAR TRIBUNE EXCLUSIVE Y ON LY IN YOU R SU N DAY PAPER <br /> SURGE IN SENIORS WILL RESHAPE <br /> STATE <br /> Look no further than Roseville for a glimpse of our <br /> graying future <br /> By MARY JANE SMETANKA' smetan@startribune.com <br /> JJoyce and John Goedeke were in their 70s when they left the Roseville home they had <br /> occupied for almost 50 years and moved into a senior co-op. John died last year, and Joyce no <br /> longer drives. But everything she needs—restaurants, a clinic, dentist, grocery store, pharmacy, <br /> dry cleaners, bakery and more— is within a 10-minute walk of her apartment at Greenhouse <br /> Village on Larpenteur Avenue. If she needs to go further, the bus stop is just half a block from her <br /> front door. <br /> "It's wonderful," she said of the place she now calls home. <br /> Luck and planning have positioned Roseville well for its graying future. It's a place where nearly <br /> one in four residents is over 64, giving it the oldest population in the Twin Cities and making it one <br /> of the five oldest U.S. cities outside the Sun Belt. Yet even as it ages gracefully, Roseville is <br /> facing new strains and dilemmas: City officials worry about attracting young families, funding <br /> services for seniors and making sure that elderly residents are safe in their homes. <br /> Those challenges will soon turn up all across Minnesota, as the state races toward the same <br /> silverhaired fate. The number of Minnesotans over 64 will double by 2035. The number in their <br /> 80s will grow even faster. By 2020, for the first time in the state's history, pensioners will <br /> outnumber schoolchildren. <br /> "It's going to affect everything," said Tom Gillaspy, the state demographer. "Big shifts are <br /> occurring, and things that have never happened before in this country." <br /> Will Minnesota be ready? Imagine a state where retirees reject school referendums to protect <br /> their limited incomes from higher property taxes. Where big houses stand vacant in third-ring <br /> suburbs. Where communities raze schools instead of building them —and devote the space to <br /> senior apartments. Where nursing home costs crowd out road construction and higher education <br /> on the state's list of priorities. When Craig Klausing was growing up in Roseville in the 1960s, <br /> the city swarmed with children. "There were streams of kids at houses on Halloween. It was <br /> almost like, 'Take a number,' " said Klausing, who is Roseville's mayor today. "Now if we have 10 <br /> or 20 kids we think we've had a good night on Halloween." <br /> Today Roseville has more residents over age 75 than under age 10. The city has converted part <br /> of a school into a senior center. The city newsletter to residents is printed in large type. There's <br /> one high school instead of two, and the number of schools has dwindled from 16 to 10. <br /> Flipping through the member directory at the Church of St. Odilia, parishioner Roger Toogood <br /> points to pictures of white-haired widows and older couples. <br /> "This used to be full of pictures of families," he said. <br /> Just inside St. Odilia's front door are wheelchairs and walkers, ready for use. More than half of <br /> the church's nearly 3,200 households are age 55 or above. "We are the oldest we've ever been," <br /> said the Rev. Phil Rask. " <br /> St. Odilia's new priorities, set in consultation with members, include some radical possibilities: <br /> hiring a nurse to help parishioners find medical and social services; starting a senior day care <br /> service; and converting a vacant eightbedroom residence on church grounds into a hospice. <br /> Rask thinks the church will draw a younger congregation as local homes turn over, but he <br /> accepts where St. Odilia is now. "We have to talk to these people and ask what they need, not <br /> what we think they need," he said. <br /> At Roseville's southern edge, the Rev. Dave Smith of Rose Hill Alliance Church takes a similar <br /> view. His congregation of 250 includes a vital group of seniors who literally built the church with <br /> their own hands in 1967. While the church is becoming increasingly diverse—there are young <br />