HADLEY — Hot summers and cold winters cause temperatures to fluctuate uncomfortably inside the senior center at the old Hooker School building. The elevator is often broken, the front entrance is blocked and there are holes in the ceilings and walls.
Town elders are eager to have a more functional and inviting senior center and residents may be asked to vote on funding one at a special Town Meeting Oct. 27.
About 600 residents signed a petition to bring forward an article asking the town to appropriate money to design and construct a new senior center building, a project estimated at $3.5 million, according to Senior Services Director Suzanne Travisano. The new facility would be built in the town-owned field behind its current location in the Hooker School building, she said.
Town Administrator David G. Nixon said at least 100 of the signatures must be certified with the town clerk for the article to come before voters on the Town Meeting floor. While other articles advance to Town Meeting at the discretion of the Select Board, any article by petition advances automatically.
“We felt that the seniors that had asked us to move forward should be the motivating force behind this,” Travisano said last week.
John Allen, 75, designed T-shirts for people to wear at the October meeting in favor of a brand new senior center — neon yellow with black letters reading “Vote Yes! Hadley Senior Center.”
Travisano said concerns have been mounting in recent years as the old Hooker School building continues to deteriorate. The building has no air conditioning and poor heating, she said, as well as large holes in the walls and ceilings. Travisano said water has even leaked onto the seniors as they try to exercise in the building’s basement.
In the mornings at 8, Travisano said, she opens the windows and turns on the fans on the ground floor to let cool air in, but shuts the windows no later than 10 a.m. to keep the area as cool as possible.
Some tiles are missing from the ceiling in the senior center’s lower level. Lynne Edwards, 65, said sometimes she wonders if one of the tiles will fall on her while she is exercising.
Getting to the center’s ground floor can be a hassle for some because the elevator is often out of service.
“I cross my fingers every time I go in,” Henry North, 78, said about using the elevator. He said some people have gotten stuck in it in the past.
When the elevator is working, it can be difficult for wheelchair users to access, according to 86-year-old Glenn Clark. Only one floor has doors that open automatically while the other two have a manual door.
Clark said sometimes it takes two people to help a wheelchair user up and down the elevator — one person to push the wheelchair and one to open the door.
“Ironically, the people that need our services the most are the very people that have the hardest time accessing our services because of the building,” Travisano said. “This is not serving the seniors well at all.”
The trips and activities offered by the center are “fabulous,” Edwards said, but the building limits senior involvement.
Travisano said to renovate the Hooker School building for the seniors would cost an estimated $3.2 million and would still leave the building without air conditioning. The cost to construct a new building with all of the appropriate amenities, she said, would be about $3.5 million.
“It’s clearly not set up for what we’re using it for,” Travisano said, referring to how seniors are exercising in the basement while administrative offices are on the second floor. The building was built for the baby boomers when they were children, she said, and the sizes of its bathrooms and fixtures reflect that.
“It’s time,” Travisano said.
Asked what impact the construction would have on taxpayers, Nixon said he’s unsure.
“It’s very early to talk about any impact on taxes,” Nixon said, adding that he will have an estimate in time for Town Meeting.
The warrant closed Aug. 31, Nixon said, meaning all petition articles will move forward as soon as the signatures are certified. The Select Board will consider all others during its Sept. 7 meeting.
State Rep. John W. Scibak noted that many senior centers in the surrounding areas are in old buildings, including the Easthampton Council of Aging, which is in an old post office.
“It’s an issue that a lot of communities are facing,” he said. “The question is, where is that money going to come from?”