SOUTH DEERFIELD — The South County Senior Center recently wrapped up a series of community forums to share information about the demand for the Senior Center’s programs and to update residents on the center’s search for a future home.
South County Senior Center Director Jennifer Ferrara and Program Coordinator Tom Patria, speaking to residents gathered at Frontier Regional School, shared statistics about the center’s busy year, with 935 events and 152 program days between July 2024 and February 2025. According to the presentation, 408 active members and about 299 guests attended these events, an increase of 49 members and 48 guests from the year before.
The center currently rents a roughly 1,800-square-foot building at 22 Amherst Road in Sunderland, but has outgrown the space amid surging membership in the last five years.
“Having one central location will help us be more effective,” Ferrara said.
edmSTUDIO’s rough potential floor plan for the basement at 112 Amherst Road in Sunderland. 
edmSTUDIO’s rough potential floor plan for the main level at 112 Amherst Road in Sunderland. 
edmSTUDIO’s rough potential floor plan for renovating the third floor at 112 Amherst Road in Sunderland. 
edmSTUDIO’s rough potential floor plan for leaving the third floor at 112 Amherst Road in Sunderland as is.
Ferrara then shared the results of edmSTUDIO’s feasibility study on moving the Senior Center to the 12,150-square-foot office building at 112 Amherst Road in Sunderland, currently owned by Delta Sand and Gravel Inc. Ferrara displayed two potential plans from the study for renovating the space to meet the center’s needs.
Both designs include renovating the basement and main floor and installing an automatic handicap-accessible door. Plans for the basement include opening up the space for a lobby, installing a handicap-accessible bathroom and adding a commercial kitchen.
On the main floor, edmSTUDIO proposes creating an open main lobby area with seating, along with three office spaces and three additional restrooms. Ferrara compared this plan to the Hadley Senior Center’s lobby area.
“Sometimes, people just want to come in and socialize; they don’t necessarily want to participate in the program that’s scheduled,” Ferrara explained.
The main level would also include a wellness room and two multi-purpose rooms, 600 and 650 square feet in size, for scheduled activities such as exercise classes. These rooms would allow the Senior Center to run multiple events simultaneously, a major benefit to moving to a larger space, Ferrara noted.
While both plans include modifications to the first two levels, only the first includes changes to the third level — renovating the space to install three restrooms, two storage rooms, a conference room and rooms for fitness, art and exercise classes. The second plan proposes leaving the third level as is, with its five office spaces and an open office space.
“There would be a ton of space that wouldn’t be utilized,” Ferrara said of the second plan. “In my opinion, it’s a waste, because what we really need is space for movement classes and other things that take place in large scale at other facilities in the community.”
The study estimated the full renovation would cost nearly $6.44 million and the second option, the reduced-scale renovation without the commercial kitchen and third floor changes, would cost about $3.07 million.
The floor plans merely reflect the feasibility study’s findings, and plans and costs are “still up in the air,” according to Senior Center Board of Oversight member and Deerfield Selectboard Chair Trevor McDaniel.
“No decisions have been made,” Ferrara told the audience. “All of this stuff is fluid. None of this is finalized.”
Ferrara, McDaniel and Whately Selectboard Chair Joyce Palmer-Fortune, in a meeting to discuss next steps, said the cost estimates are high and that several key drivers, including installing an automatic sprinkler system, additional restrooms to comply with state requirements for occupancy, and an additional exterior elevator may not be necessary.
The interior of the elevator at 112 Amherst Road is 48 by 51 inches, according to Ferrara. Although state law requires an elevator cab to be a minimum 54 by 68 inches, the regulation includes an exception for elevators in existing buildings that are at least 48 by 48 inches, potentially eliminating the need to construct an additional exterior elevator, a $630,000 expense based on the feasibility study’s estimates.
The Board of Oversight plans to look at other ways to cut costs before negotiating a lease agreement with Delta Sand and Gravel, aiming for a $2 million renovation price tag.
“Right now, we’re really looking into the letter of the law,” Palmer-Fortune said. “We’re trying to think really flexibly about how to get started and get our foot in the door, so to speak, and do it legally.”
While plans for funding the changes remain undecided, Ferrara told forum attendees that Delta Sand and Gravel may consider renovating the building to fit the Senior Center’s needs and folding the expenses into the rent. This plan would allow Deerfield, the Senior Center fiduciary agent, to pay for the renovation costs over time.
Although Deerfield is the fiduciary agent, the town would share the bill with Sunderland and Whately if the 112 Amherst Road project moves forward. According to McDaniel, Deerfield, Sunderland and Whately will likely see an Annual Town Meeting article in the spring addressing the project costs, but the amounts will likely not reflect the total cost, and instead would only cover an increase in the Senior Center’s budget to cover the negotiated lease payment.
McDaniel told attendees that the Board of Oversight is also looking into the possibility of moving into the building and modifying it over time, softening the financial hits.
“Moving into the building and doing nothing to it is an improvement,” Palmer-Fortune said, adding that the 112 Amherst Road building currently contains five bathrooms. “That’s five times as many bathrooms as we have in our current space, and we’re functioning in our current space.”
“I think that this 112 building is the right way to go if we can do it affordably,” McDaniel said, “and a little at a time and just grow with that space.”
