Letter To The Editor: Come To The Senior Center Building Meeting

Letter to the editor from Wilmington resident Sue Clarkin:

Dear Editor,

The last few months have been busy relative to the formulation of plans for the New Senior Center.

The focus group met to review the program needs (Arts and Crafts, Exercise Classes, Social events, etc.) based on the results of the survey completed in October 2020. Also, they looked at room size to support these programming needs. These preliminaries were reviewed by the Owners Project Manager (OPM), the architect (Dietz and Co.) and Terri Marciello, Senior Center Director. After review, the programming needs and proposed room size were presented in a meeting with the Permanent Building Committee on June 16.

This meeting included a preliminary site review. After this meeting, a site visit was completed to the Ludlow and Westfield Senior Centers which were designed by the Architectural team of Dietz and Co. This visit included Terri Marciello, George Hooper and Diane Allan, Permanent Building Committee members, and Ken Clarkin, Elder Services Commission member. Feedback from that trip, and previous trips to neighboring centers, culminated in another meeting on July 27 that produced a diagram of the rooms grouped by function and size. Further input on site selection was refined and included.

Much work remains to be done. A joint meeting has been scheduled between the Town Hall/School Administration Building Committee and Senior Center Building Committee and the members of the Permanent Building Meeting Committee to discuss site selection on Tuesday Sept. 7 at 6:30 in the Large Group Meeting Room at the High School.

The proposed sites include the Whitefield School site, the Swain School site, the present Town Hall site and the site adjacent to St. Dorothy’s. If you want to give your input on site selection, your participation would be welcome! There has been a good turnout at the PBC meetings but a larger turnout would demonstrate our unity in supporting the new Senior Center. Come and be a part of the process.

Respectfully submitted,
Sue Clarkin