Seniors Renew Call For More Space

Kendra Bobowick

They want more space.

Seniors’ complaints about lack of programming space, parking, and a facility to accommodate their needs are nothing new, agreed Senior Center Director Marilyn Place.

Concerns arose again at a January 23 Commission on Aging meeting where several residents voiced frustrations with overcrowded and overflowing exercise classes, lack of sufficient equipment, safety issues, lack of parking, a growing number of senior residences and a growing need of services, and more, according to the meeting minutes.

Ms Place said this week, “Space problems are always there.” And although the problem is “nothing new,” she said, “We’ve got to face it,” that more elderly are interested in joining programs.

She said, “It’s space, it’s parking, the building is used at top capacity.”

The Senior Center, which shares a building with the Children’s Adventure Center on Riverside Road, had an addition built on the back several years ago. “That helped a lot,” Ms Place said, but with a growing number of retirees looking to sign up for programs, “We are overflowing.”

A $500,000 sum is in the town’s Capital Improvement Plan (CIP) for the seniors in the year 2017, First Selectman Pat Llodra confirmed, but she is also aware that the town needs to meet seniors’ needs, she said Wednesday.

Past attempts to include the seniors in a new construction project fell through. Prior years’ CIP funds for a Parks and Recreation Department Community Center involved first razing Litchfield Hall, which came down last winter, and building a new facility in its footprint. Litchfield had sat next to the Newtown Youth Academy at Fairfield Hills. Seniors eventually decided that their portion of a proposed new building and parking area would not be sufficient.

Still hoping for a space of their own, Ms Place explained, “What it comes down to, if there is a space out there for our seniors, we should go for it.”

She said, “We have art classes without art room, sewing class without a sewing room — it’s grown so much. The senior population has grown and we need to do something for them…”

Mrs Llodra agrees. She recalls “a lot of discussion that the seniors really wanted their own building.” While the town does have money in the CIP for the seniors in the year 2017, no concrete future plans are in place for a new senior center. The CIP ensures that the town officials “will return to the question: what’s the long-term plan?” Mrs Llodra explained.

The seniors’ space constraints in the building shared with the Children’s Adventure Center “will need to be addressed,” Mrs Llodra said. “We need an honest conversation about if that facility meets needs present and future.” She recognizes the “pressure on the facility” for growing demands for programming, and a growing senior population. Many seniors remain in town and “we want all age groups to thrive. If we mean that, we have to provide a facility,” she said.

With the seniors facility among the “large projects on the horizon,” Mrs Llodra said, “We have a moral and ethical obligation to the seniors and we’re not meeting their needs, and we need to.” She said, “We’re a richer town for having them.”

Thinking of the planning that will have to happen, Ms Place said, “We have to work together to make things work.”

Commission on Aging Chairman Thomas Dwyer said, “It’s obvious that a number of seniors are upset that we don’t have a bigger and better center.”

Annually, his commission makes sure town officials are aware of seniors’ needs. “As a commission we represent citizens of the town. The problem is lack of funding,” he said. In recent years, he said, “We thought we had it, there was a plan afoot,” but the community center project with the Parks and Recreation Department “would not have worked,” he said.

Regarding the groups of people that raise their concerns, he said, “We hear them, we respond, and we will continue to work with Mrs Llodra and town fathers.”