Baldwinville seniors facility to open in July
Stephen Landry
News Staff Writer
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| News staff photo by STEPHEN LANDRY Residents tour the new senior center in Baldwinville on Saturday. It is scheduled to open in July. |
TEMPLETON Saying it will be a warm and inviting place for local seniors, officials offered residents a tour of the new senior center during an open house event on Saturday. The 10,000-square-foot facility, which will eventually occupy two floors in the building on Senior Drive, is scheduled to open in July.
Director Dianna Morrison said the center, which had been in the planning stages for 10 years, is long overdue and represents a major upgrade for senior services in the area.
“We’re (currently) in a one-room schoolhouse that is 700 square feet and over 100 years old,” Ms. Morrison said of the group’s present facility in East Templeton. “The floors are not level and there is a river that runs through the cellar.”
The new center, with a price tag of $1 million, includes a library, media and activity rooms, a multipurpose room, and offices for employees.
“Our (new) dining room is larger than our present facility,” Ms. Morrison explained, adding that the new center’s library will include a gas fireplace that was purchased with donated funds.
A downstairs food pantry, also set to be completed by midsummer, will replace the center’s current pantry located in a garage in Baldwinville.
Community support for the new center, which is next to two federally funded senior housing facilities, has been unanimously positive, Mr. Morrison said.
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| News staff photo by STEPHEN LANDRY Residents take a tour of the new senior center in Baldwinville on Saturday. It is scheduled to open in July. |
The new facility will offer outdoor activities, including horseshoe pits, bird feeders and picnic tables. A landscaping project, which will combine the efforts of seniors and students from Narragansett High School, is also in the works, Ms. Morrison said.
“We’re hoping make (the landscaping) a multigenerational project, where the seniors and kids can work together,” Ms. Morrison said. The Friends of Templeton Elders group will host a series of monthly events aimed at raising money for the new center. These will include a townwide yard sale next month, a macaroni and cheese cook-off in July and a charity auction at the Templeton Craft Fair in August.
Friends President Gail Noel said the need for a new senior center in the community had reached a critical stage over the past few years.
“Thirty percent of our town is elderly — everybody knows we need a new center,” Ms. Noel explained, saying that the new facility will serve as a community center for the region.
“This (facility) will bring people together and serve as a vibrant part of the community,” she said.
I think this facility is another fine example of government spending gone wild. Why should the town taxpayers be responsible for a facility that will be used by a very few member of the community.
ReplyDeleteI understand that the organizations that use the senior center wanted more space, but this is overkill and antiquated thinking. I love a prime example of the foolishness of this idea. The building has a library, really, the senior center required an antiquated outdated concept of a library..........
I look at the majority of this facility as a club house for elderly people. Private funds should be used for this, not public funds of any kind. I will never, nor will my family use this facility, yet we are forced to pay for it.
Should we build a "kids club" next, or a "middle aged" club.
bob m: great thought ! I will never use the schools in town either. when can I stop paying???
ReplyDeleteBob this facility will serve more than just seniors. The area has needed this for a long time and for the amount of money it cost us to have it be something we can call ours is special. Name anything Templeton has for what little we spent on this senior center. For all that matters name anything Templeton has. Police station,almost.Fire station,somewhat. Highway dept,less equipment. Schools, 1 newer. As the longest paying and most paid in seniors deserve a better,not a old shared scout hall. Many have donated their time and money to see this through to completion.
ReplyDeleteThank you all!
Thats what they need to read BOB.
We did vote as a town to do this
Good job Doug,Dianne and crew.
David,
ReplyDeleteI disgree. Yes the town did vote for this, but not everyone voted "yes". Some seniors who will never use this center are being billed extra tax dollars so that other seniors can have a clubhouse.
During a period when school budgets are killing this town and taxes are being raised above the 2.5% limit to pay for services it is poor management to require more tax increases on local residents.
In our election process mainly elderly folks vote. Look at the percentage of town people who actually vote for these expenses.Something like a few hundred out of 8000 residents.
Most residents in town dont even know where the new senior center is located. They will never use it, or see it. What percentage of our population is ever going to use that center, 1-2%?
We are to small of a community to be funding "senior clubhouses" through tax dollars.
David, you bring up an interesting point. How can we ever "have" a police, fire or highway department if we keep wasting money and expenses on "clubhouses" rather than public services that support the "entire" town and not 1-2% of the community?
Taxpayer dollars are limited and when people see them spent on "clubs" and are constantly asked for overrides for our bloated, inefficient and poorly run school system nothing is left for those vital services the entire town requires.
Templeton is a small community and needs to use it resources wisely. It has not done so for years and it doesn't appear to be changing for the better with any urgency.
Brads comment is asinine and typical. Schools are required by state law. Senior centers are not!
Bob M,
ReplyDeleteI have to disagree with your comparison to the Senior Center as a "Clubhouse". It is more than that and I think you know it.
Our population of elders is growing a quite a rapid rate. The numbers are goring at such a rapid rate that the Templeton was one of 50 COA's nationwide to qualify and be awarded the SNAP Grant. This grant was awarded not just on the numbers of senior citizens, but also the very low incomes are seniors have.
The Senior center provides outreach not just to seniors but also to family members caring for their elderly parents. The services the senior center provides provide a "safety net " for some of our most vulnerable members of our community. People who have "paid their dues" over the years in funding school building projects, funding public safety, funding highway, water and sewer projects.
While not everyone voted "Yes" to fund the senior center, it followed the legal process to obtain the money to build the senior center. In my opinion, abandoning the senior center project at this point in time would be an irresponsible waste of taxpayer money.
Progress takes time. Change is very slow to occur in municipal government, but that change can happen. The DOR report was issued in October 2009. The first recommendation was to create a Town administrator position. It took years, but that change has finally happened. Other changes are happening as well. Please "Be inspired to participate!" Help create the change You think should happen.
It should read ..." The numbers are growing at such a rapid rate..."
ReplyDeleteMrs Farrell,
ReplyDeleteI disagree, Please point out one, just one service the senior center provides to elderly people that is not already in place! This senior center is going to be used by a very small number of people in town, yet it costs everyone money even those poor elderly you are stating it helps.
These extra tax charges we keep getting asked to pay are making those people impoverished. Rather than focusing on feel good legislation and rules we as a town need to focus on whats going to kill this town, the school budget!
The senior center is a nice thing, but not something the town of Templeton could afford when our fiscal situation is so messed up.It shows just how "out of touch" the leaders of the town are from the actual townspeople.
We have a senior center. Can anyone please tell me how many townspeople actually use the facility? To me it appears that the senior center is going to be used as an anex for the neighboring facilities and nothing more.
How do you imagine these poor, elderly people are going to get to the senior center? The cannot afford to drive their daily, many don't drive, they cannot walk, so who is going to benefit?
This was a nice feel good issue that was poorly thought out and pushed through by the elderly townspeople who vote. You know, the 500 (7% of town)or so people that have nothing better to do than sit at meeting after meetings.
The balance of townsfolk figure its pointless as proven by the school budgets year after year. How many times did we vote NO, just to be overruled by another town.