BROCTON - The Herbert Star Senior Apartments will mark the residential property's 25th anniversary with an Open House to be held on Sunday from 1-4 p.m.

Offering affordable studio and one-bedroom apartments for seniors age 62 and up, the 42-unit complex is located at 54 Central Ave. between Park and Smith streets in Brocton. According to Site Manager Kathy Peters, as it celebrates this milestone, Herbert Star looks back on a quarter century of serving the community and forward to a future being shaped by a nearly $275,000 investment in structural and aesthetic improvements, many of which are already in place.

"Our plan calls for a wide range of capital improvements," she explains, "including the installation of a covered walkway to our entrance, to which will be added new automatic-opening lobby doors with the improved security of a new electronic access system." Also in progress are the upgrading and expansion of the property's parking area and driveways and the addition of perimeter sidewalks, as well as the installation of a new second floor ventilation system, the replacement of windows and doors, and extensive kitchen renovations beginning with new countertops and cabinets.

Peters adds that the complex, managed by non-profit Belmont Housing Resources for WNY, is also receiving additional enhancements that "express the shining spirit that has lighted our way for the past 25 years." As a symbol of that spirit, she points to the new solar light-equipped star-shaped planter that now sits beside a new bench in the facility's well-landscaped private area. She notes that both were made possible by the Herbert Star family's Memorial Fund, which is also sponsoring a 25th anniversary time capsule set to be dedicated at 2 p.m. during Sunday's Open House. Horse-drawn limousine-style carriage rides are also scheduled from 2:30 to 3:30 p.m.

"Anniversaries and construction projects may generate a lot of energy and excitement," Peters observes, "but the thing that most deserves to be celebrated is the positive way this complex has touched so many lives over the past 25 years." In recognition of that still-growing family of satisfied residents, she adds that each of the now 209 people who have called Herbert Star home since the apartments opened November 1, 1984, will be represented by a star containing their name, arrival date and apartment number that will be on display at the Open House. "After all," Peters says, "they're the reason we work so hard to make Herbert Star shine."