For several years Scarborough’s senior citizen organizations have been meeting at private facilities in town, but that could soon change if the town approves the construction of a senior center.
Town officials are investigating the possibility of building a senior center next to Town Hall and will be meeting with the town’s two senior groups next week to discuss the issue, at 1 p.m. Thursday, April 21, at Scarborough Downs.
“The seniors are looking for a home,” said Community Services Director Bruce Gullifer, who is working on the project. “This will give us an opportunity to have a building specifically designed for seniors.”
Town Manager Ron Owens said the town has prepared a sketch design for the potential senior center that will cost less than $1 million to build. Keeping the project under the $1 million mark may make it easier to receive Town Council and ultimately voter approval.
Building a senior center in Scarborough has been discussed for several years, and is one of the main reason why Senior Voices was first formed.
“The mission statement (of Senior Voices) says we’re looking for a permanent location for a seniors to meeting other seniors and plan activities,” said Elizabeth McCann, president and founder of Senior Voices.
The issue has resurfaced after the YMCA declined a piece of land next to the Town Hall for a future building. The area is one that both Gullifer and McCann feel would be an excellent location for a senior center.
“It’s going to be where I always thought it should,” McCann said.
While the proposal is only preliminary, Town Council Chairman Jeffrey Messer said it might be best to request voter approval this November because in 2006 the school may bring a bond request forward.
Today Senior Voices meets monthly at Scarborough Downs. The other senior organization in town, Senior Series, is run by Scarborough Community Services. That organization meets twice a week at the Hillcrest Community Center.
The construction of a senior center would allow the organizations to offer more programming and host events more than a handful pf times a month and, overall, provide seniors with better opportunities.
“I don’t think the seniors in this community have been served as well as they could be without a building,” Gullifer said. “It gives us a lot more options.”
Last week Messer met with a group of people interested in building a senior center, including Gullifer and McCann. The meeting was informal and intended to gauge the opinion of the interested parties and see if there is enough support for such a facility.
Messer said he is receptive to a senior center, but said that the seniors in town would have to do a lot of work to get the issue on the ballot and get it passed. But at this point anyway, there seems to be a lot of momentum behind the idea.
Each year the school district receives the bulk of taxpayer money and the town has recently approved a $27 million expansion project at the high school, which was entirely funded with local money. It is now time to pay some attention to the town’s senior citizens, Messer said.
“This is an opportunity for the whole town to make a statement that seniors are important to us,” Messer said.
Messer, Gullifer and members of Senior Series will attend next week’s Senior Voices meeting to speak with the members about the senior center. Messer said the meeting would primarily be a listening session where the members of Senior Voices will discuss their needs for a senior center.
“They want to discuss it with us and we’ll listen to what they say,” Messer said.
The town has never voted on a single-use senior center. In 2001 voters defeated a nearly $6 million proposal that would have included a senior center with a community center and athletic fields.
“It’s been a long time coming; it’s something I believe the community will benefit from in the long run,” Gullifer said.
Send questions/comments to the editors.
