“If You Build It, They Will Come,” A New Acton Senior/Community Center?

Acton Needs a New Senior/Community Center…

Well, that is according to Peter Ashton and Sharon Mercurio. Ashton heads the Senior Center Building Committee (SCBC) and Mercurio is the Council on Aging (COA) Senior Center Executive Director. Together, they are championing for the construction of a new Senior/Community Center near NARA Park.

Why?

Well, for a few different reasons cited by Ashton, the SCBC Chair, during Monday night’s Board of Selectmen meeting (1/9/12).

• According to the Senior Center Expansion Committee report in 2009, there will be a need in 10-20 years to construct a new Senior Center outside of the Audubon drive location.

• The 2010 Census had the Acton senior population at 3,700 and the 2011 Census had the Acton senior population up to 3,900 – a five percent increase in one year.  The SCBC estimated that by the year 2030 the Acton senior population would be 6,000.

• The size of the current Senior Center is 5,000 square feet, in which the SCBC makes the point that space is so limited that podiatry clinics take place in the dining hall.

• COA data shows that the number of seniors served at the Senior Center has risen about 4 percent a year (In 2005: a little over 900 seniors. In 2011: a little under 1,200). COA data shows that the number of senior recreational activities at the Senior Center has risen over the years (In 2005: a little under 700. In 2010: a little over 800). 

• The SCBC and the COA reported that parking, particularly in the mornings, has been limited and when seniors are forced to park on the steep hill on Audubon Drive they tend to leave. “When we have popular programs we have people parking up and down that hill and then have to walk up the hill to attend the program and we have heard from other seniors that they have turned around and gone home,” said Mercurio.
• NOTE: According to Acton resident, Allen Nitschelm, who conducted his own informal study of how many cars were parked at the Senior Center by visiting the Senior Center 30 times at different times of the day during the months of June/July 2011, he concluded that the average number of cars in the parking lot was 12.  

• Members of the SCBC visited various local towns that built new Senior Centers. When Selectmen, John Sonner, asked if the towns that have recently built a new Senior Center had experienced a significant increase in attendance and if the SCBC thought they would see an increase in Acton, Mercurio said, “If you build it, they will come.” Mercurio said Northborough reported an increase in attendance post their new facility.

Who serves on the SCBC?

Peter Ashton, Sharon Mercurio, Mike Gowing, Steve LeDoux, Dean Charter, Paulina Knibbe, Steve Baran, Ann Chang, Charlie Aaronson, Barbara Wilson and Barbara Tallone. 

Not Just a Senior Center:

The community needs to define what is a Senior/Community Center? The SCBC has been kicking around ideas of what part the Community Center aspect would play at a Senior Center and they came up with various uses like:

• Swimming pool

• Youth center

• Gym

• Meeting space (outside rental usage)

• Afternoon/Evening usage

• Day care

At the Board of Selectmen meeting, Selectmen Chair, Mike Gowing, pointed out that the town doesn’t have any large function areas other than the schools.

“If we look at this from a community center stand point we don’t have any kind of large function area in the town other than the schools, which means it precludes the use during the school year and school days,” said Gowing.

He later went on to point out that defining the community center usage is still in an early stage.

“Obviously this is still ongoing and we’re still in discussion because I do think that we need to have, at least in my estimation, some sense of what a community center means and I think that is way too broad right now,” said Gowing.

Cost of the project:

According to the SCBC’s presentation at the Selectmen meeting Monday night, the total estimated cost would be somewhere between $.7.7 million, with an estimated annual debt service of $500,000 a year (estimated $70 a year on the average tax bill) - with an additional operating cost for personnel and supplies of $270,000.

The SCBC has a plan to request $140,000 at Town Meeting for a design budget, with a final construction amount by April 2014.

The COA is looking to receive input from local seniors that will help them with this proposed project. They are offering a survey that you can take from now until Feb. 1.

The SCBC intends to hold public-input forums down the road.