To the Editor:

As a member of the original Community/Senior Center Advisory Committee and past chair of the Commission On Aging from 2013 to 2017, I had the opportunity to work closely with both the chair, Bob Mitchell, and all members of the Newtown Public Building & Site Commission (PBSC). This dedicated team of volunteer appointees are truly among the “unsung heroes” of Newtown. They have tremendous knowledge and skills and have gone the distance with us — the Senior Center team and the areas of the Community Center with common services to the seniors — HVAC, utilities, and pools.

This effort spanned tens of hours of initial reviews with the architects, designers, and construction management firms, followed by another round of tens of hours of tedious reviews of approximately two dozen written detailed proposals and then conducting monthly meetings reviewing the progress of the center components — construction, budgets, financials, schedules, etc.

The wonderful ribbon cutting ceremonies and dedications of both the new Senior Center and Community Center on July 19 were due in large part to the six years of work of this outstanding team. In fact, along the way, some of the commission members reminded me that they, the PBSC, go back to the original proposals of the earlier 2000s for a combined Community-Senior Center that never quite got funded and initiated.

As a 50-year resident of Newtown and nine-year appointee to numerous town commissions, committees, and advisory boards, I want to both thank and commend the PBSC for their outstanding commitment and dedicated work in helping to make the new Senior Center, Community Center, lap pool, and zero-entry kids and therapy pool a reality.

Curt Symes

Lake Road, Newtown July 26, 2019