Stephen Palmer, Wingate Both Removed from Senior Center Consideration

A light round of applause filled the air Wednesday night as residents heard the news that the Stephen Palmer site had been removed from consideration as a senior center site.

Over a dozen Needham residents, many of them from Stephen Palmer, gathered at 500 Dedham Ave. to hear the Senior Center Exploratory Committee (SCEC) run through their list of pros and cons related to the six sites on the table: Stephen Palmer, Wingate, Needham Heights, Greene's Field, Rosemary and Ridge Hill. But as the night concluded, both Stephen Palmer and Wingate had been stricken from further consideration.

The meeting began with SCEC co-chair Denise Garlick asking for comments from members of the general public gathered in the room. Alice Kelleher, a resident of the Stephen Palmer building, was first to speak.

"Please get rid of Stephen Palmer for consideration," she implored the committee. "It is our home."

Kelleher also told the committee that the inclusion of the site may have started a "political firestorm" that had the residents of the building "more united than ever."

Faye Glovinsky, herself a Stephen Palmer resident, noted the irony in relocating seniors in the building.

"We're the only site under consideration where people have to be displaced," she said. "It doesn't make any sense to displace seniors to build a new senior center."

When Garlick asked who among meeting attendees is a current resident of Stephen Palmer, ten raised their hands. Jerry Fagen represented one of those hands.

"There are 28 households in that building," he directed at the committee. "Can you really justify displacing 28 families?"

Garlick was quick to point out that the decision to include Stephen Palmer was one made by the Board of Selectmen and not the SCEC.

When the committee decided to discuss the logistics of the site among themselves, SCEC member Moe Handel stated, "The only strength I see is the location."

Like Handel, the rest of the committee agreed that there were too many negatives involved with the site to seriously consider it.

"I think of all the sites on this list, it has the most disadvantages," Handel continued.

SCEC co-chair Jim Healy added that the Palmer site posed the same issue of congestion that Greene's Field did. Healy related that he liked the site in general, as the building is large and offers a lot of potential, but the matter of current residents living there and the fact that the building is locked into a private lease make it an unattractive option.

"The possibilities are endless, but the timing is wrong," Healy said of the property.

The committee moved to remove Stephen Palmer from consideration and the motion passed unanimously.

The other site that proved unpopular enough to remove Wednesday night was the Wingate property on Highland Ave. Committee members cheered the synergy between the senior center and a group dedicated to elder services, but could not find many positives beyond that.

"I see hardly any strengths," said Healy who believed that it presents a poor location. "If we're gonna go to the edge of town, why not go to Ridge Hill, which is beautiful, instead of a concrete slab?"

Committee members also cited the acquisition rights involved in working with Wingate as a hazard. Ultimately, like the Stephen Palmer site, members moved to unanimously strike Wingate from consideration.

With both sites now out of consideration, Stephen Palmer residents may a bit rest easier knowing that their home will not be turned into a senior center anytime soon.

Asked after the meeting if she felt a weight had been lifted from her back, Kelleher responded, "Yes! We can sleep tonight."

Though Stephen Palmer will not be the site of a new senior center, Healy believes that various committees and boards will likely look at the site for other projects in the years to come. The building's lease runs for another 17 years, but Healy sees something happening sooner than that.

"That's the last big opportunity we have in the downtown area," he said. "My guess is that something will be done with that property in 10 years."