Council Eyes Senior Center for Army Reserve Facility

Brinn Chute, the city's senior services coordinator, asked the City Council to imagine a place where elderly residents could do everything from get lunch five days a week, take Ukulele lessons and enjoy strolls through peaceful gardens.

During the City Council's work session on Monday night to examine potential reuses for the Paul A. Doble Army Reserve Center on Cottage Street, Chute said the council should support making it into a new Portsmouth Senior Centers.

“This particular location is very desirable because it has great location, it has accessibility from Woodbury Avenue, the Traffic Circle and from Islington (Street),” she said.

She said the one-level building would be easy to navigate and the assembly hall could be converted into a function hall. She said it could also house other agencies such as ServiceLink or the Rockingham County Community Action Meals on Wheels program. Chute said the outdoor green spaces could be utilized as a walking loop, gardens and other recreational facilities.

COAST buses also run past the Doble Center and a stop could be placed at Doble center, she said. “The City of Portsmouth really needs to embrace the older generation of Portsmouth,” she said.

She added later, “Seniors that I am hearing from loud and clear feel it is time for them to have a senior center,” Chute said. “They are disappointed that they do not have a hub of their own.”

During the work session, Assistant Mayor Robert Lister wanted to note who Paul A. Doble was given the historic nature of the facility. According to David Moore, the city's community development director, Doble was a U.S. Army soldier who served in World War II, was commissioned a lieutenant and served in Sicily and southern France where he was killed in action.

Councilor Nancy Novelline Clayburgh, who worked on a senior services study committee, said that the Doble Center could be large enough to be a 50-plus community center. “I think this is the ideal setting,” she said.

Lister also said he thought the Doble Army Reserve Center would be good for a senior center.

City Manager John Bohenko said converting the Army Reserve Center into a Senior center will require some money to meet building codes and Americans with Disabilities Act requirements. But Bohenko said funds are available within the city budget to make those improvements.

“We feel once we have the property, we could be in that property in six months,” Bohenko said.

Councilor Brad Lown asked city Recreation Department Director Rus Wilson and Recreation Board Chairman Carl Diemer if the city’s need for an extra athletic field is as acute as it was in 2008?

Wilson said the Recreation Department feels “it could be a win win” for the department  and the seniors if they could use the site for the extra athletic field and a multi-generational facility.

Councilor Esther Kennedy recalled how she learned the senior center on Parrott Avenue was closing at Christmas time a year and a half ago at a time when the city’s senior population was growing.

“I am not convinced anywhere yet where the senior center should be because the seniors do not agree on where it should be located, but I do agree that we need a senior center,” she said. "I would like to see a group formed with the appropriate officials and the appropriate senior citizens to really see what these individuals would like to see in their senior center."

Kennedy said some seniors want a senior center, but they cannot afford to have their property taxes go up, “which is a valid concern.” Given the fact that it may be a year before the city could receive the center, Kennedy said forming the committee would make sense.

Currently, is still under construction and may not be completed until later this year or sometime in 2014, Moore said.

Once completed, the $9.16 million facility being constructed by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers will be the new home for 49 soldiers with Detachment 2, A Company, of the 399^th Combat Support Hospital and 38 soldiers with the 378^th Minimum Care Detachment.