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HomeMy WebLinkAbout2006-01-17-SCAP-min Senior Center Action Plan Committee Meeting January 17, 2006 5:30 pm Present: Shirley Stolz, Mary Lou Touart, Paul Lapointe, Tom Griffiths, Duke Bitsko Lauren MacNeil, Marilyn Campbell, Marian Cohen, Maria Constantinides Laura Kole, Richard Pagett Minutes We approved unanimously the minutes of the December 20, 2005 meeting. Questions and Concerns Richard handed out the collected questions, issues and concerns from the committee members, emailed to him over the past week. He divided the questions into categories: Munroe Center for the Arts; Munroe School Building; Funding; Parking; Recreation; Muzzey; Utilization/Demand; Alternatives. Two categories, Utilization/Demand and Alternatives, raised almost half of the questions from committee members. Are we ready to propose Munroe, and is it the right thing to do given these questions. It’s not really about Munroe, we need to answer some more basic questions that were raised. Marian posed the likeliest first question from the Selectmen: ‘Do we need a new Senior Center (SC)?’ If the Council on Aging (COA) doesn’t have the numbers to support the need, the issue of Munroe School is irrelevant. If we decide a new SC is needed and this is the time to pursue it, is Munroe School the choice? How will we make these arguments to the Board of Selectmen (BOS) and Town Meeting (TM)? How do we deal with the Center for the Arts (CFA)? Lauren talked about numbers. There are lots of numbers, but what do people think they want? People need to understand what they are looking at when they look at numbers. Other than numbers (we turn away x number of people from y number of programs…) is there an argument for getting a new SC? Marilyn pointed out: air quality is bad, it is tired, it is an underground, mole-like place. These, however, are not compelling reasons that will mobilize the town. We don’t hear a groundswell from the users of the current SC. When Lauren first started in her job she heard a lot of complaints, but are these people gone? Frustrated? Given up? Marilyn worked for Weston when the old SC moved to larger quarters. When they got the new building was there an increase in demand? No, says Marilyn, it’s a myth. The population of needy seniors is dying out. The new senior is more affluent, more educated, traveling, volunteering more. Community Centers (CC) are better options, they caught people’s imaginations. 2 Seniors need information and services as they are growing older. That’s still the same as before. They need social services like counseling, not recreation. Do social services to these elders need to be in the same place as the activities for the younger elders? Maybe we should just grow the services we offer, keep them at Muzzey, and do programs elsewhere. That would be better supported if it were combined in a CC. We need to start building community in this town, it is incredibly diverse now. Offer shared programs that not only seniors would use. Doing that would be ok from the COA point of view. We are the THIRD committee that has looked at this issue. The others didn’t come to any real conclusion as to what should happen. Is this the last go-round? Why couldn’t they come up with a workable conclusion? The second committee did, but each time the BOS, TM and citizens saw fit to reject those conclusions (land would be put into conservation, for instance). Note: the second committee was of the opinion that new land should NOT be used, that buildings should be re-used. This might simply be accepting the reality of the town’s bias. They wanted Walgreens (not available) first, then the DPW site (went to the new DPW), and then Munroe. These committees assumed there was a need; we still must determine that need. ?? We need a more permanent location for the Adult Day Center. ?? Muzzey has too many restrictions on hours and parking. If the real need is to provide for active seniors, they are still working and can’t come during the hours the current SC is allowed to be open. ?? All the data indicates two groups of seniors in the future: those that need significant support services and those who want exercise and intellectual stimulation. So maybe we should call it an Adult Center (AC). Do we have to call it a SC to get funds? No. How do you run a CC? You can create an effective CC by opening up SC programs to other people. The Friends of the Council on Aging (FCOA) is ready to raise funds for a new SC. But the COA would not run a CC, it would have to be a collaboration of the Recreation Department, COA, Lexington Adult Education and perhaps more. And a CC would be too large for Munroe. Could probably make an AC fit there, but CC would have to be at, say, Harrington. What about testing the concept by running programs in several locations, thus creating a group that would WANT a new SC? Marian thinks that running programs elsewhere proves nothing, it compares apples and oranges. To do the test you need to test what you’re interested in. If you want to prove you need something, you need to have that something and see. Other complications: Munroe is occupied. Would we be saying seniors are more important than the current occupants? But Lexington cannot unilaterally give Munroe to the Munroe Center for the Arts (MCA). Legally there is a public, competitive process for awarding a lease. Minutes: 2006-01-17-SCAP-min 3 Duke: sees it like a Lyceum, after all the discussions about increasing the scope of the center. Harrington is a wonderful building to think about. Hold some things during the day, some in the evening. Many groups in town would be interested in doing such a thing, it would be a great selling point for us. Duke sees this as a grand purpose, but Harrington is not available. What about renovating Munroe now, confirm that this is a concept that works for the town, then when Harrington is finally available it can move there. OK, for THIS committee: How do we walk away with success?? Munroe Harrington How do we craft something that doesn’t choose either one but meshes them? Munroe Center: Intellectual and recreation activities (not ‘Senior Center’) Maybe the whole thing moves to Harrington in the future. Tom: a month ago he was moving toward Munroe. With the plan for using Munroe and Muzzey he was more convinced. BUT the MCA performs a valuable function in town and has many supporters. If the arts community succeeds in keeping us out of Munroe we will have failed as a committee again. Why is it akin to rocket science to find 20,000 sq ft of space on two acres???!!! Paul has two areas of concern: th ?? The adult day care center is going to add a 5 day of service there. There is a demand for more than the 30 spots they can serve there, though they still want to keep it under 40 so the size is manageable. Mill St. is not a stable, long-term proposition, the facilities are inadequate, using the garage for programs and so forth. We still need to solve that. ?? SC restrictions from the Muzzey Condo Association are unreasonable. The SC there is not well designed and it’s dreary. He is also uncomfortable with the extent to which these two facilities serve our population. Also, are we being good stewards of Lexington’s assets? Is the Munroe School even on the town’s radar? There is nothing in capital plans for it. It is like the East Lexington branch library: invisible. These two assets warrant some attention. The town should do a study of Munroe and decide what it should be, what it would take to make it a functioning asset. So maybe we should understand the facilities and hope that would ‘move the ball forward’ . Maybe they’ll decide it should be an Arts Center. Finding out who wants to use it is backwards, first we need a study for what it should be. But don’t feasibility studies require a proposed use? Yes, but we could suggest many, such as Arts Center, over 55 housing, SC … Minutes: 2006-01-17-SCAP-min 4 We can’t lease it out the way it is, any use would require upgrade and renovation. To get the shell in order, we can figure out what that would cost (sprinklers, plumbing, asbestos abatement, handicap access, etc). Maybe we can get an order of magnitude cost to do just those generic things. Maybe we take a year. We assemble usage numbers. We talk to the Friends of the Council on Aging about raising funds for building. We build our case for a new building. We ask the BOS to please look into the issue of MCA. What does it take to do an independent of its proposed use evaluation of Munroe ? That would eliminate political fallout. But we don’t know if it would be appropriate for the SC at the end of that cost to use exercise. If the town wants to do this, they can present the ‘’ to any potential lessees. BUT we do need to know if renovations would be possible to make it a SC or we don’t know what WE need to know! Note: we also would have to do a feasibility study of a reconfigured Muzzey! Note: we do have that $35,000 allocated for a feasibility study, but we must have made a decision in order to use it. Would Capital Expenditures Committee be favorable to a facilities review? Shirley thought yes, they are concerned with Munroe as a building. What about having the town do a study for the generic upgrade, then we can do a feasibility study as a SC. No. So perhaps we are now looking at two possibilities to bring to the BOS: 1. We recommend a feasibility study to be done to focus on programmatic allocation of space to understand how it will be used, knowing it will require significant money to renovate. 2. No option but to say we have nothing until Harrington comes on in 10 (?) years. Muzzey would need a significant investment to make it more useful, attractive and pleasant. COA would develop programming aimed at the current and evolving senior population, house it all over town, and build a demand that way. Maybe Harrington will be available sooner than thought. Declining student population, redistricting coming, new superintendent. Marian has now come to like the idea of more than just a SC, that an Adult Center or more would be ideal. In fact, going back to the SC model would seem like a poor plan now! If we only renovate Muzzey we would be going with the SC model. Paul would like to try to put some expense numbers to this Munroe School project. Marilyn likes Harrington School. Meeting adjourned at 7:30 pm Next meeting: Tuesday January 24, 2005 at 5:30 in the Selectmen’s Meeting Room. Minutes: 2006-01-17-SCAP-min