When residents of Hadley gather for a special Town Meeting in late October, they’ll face a busy warrant. It will include a fervent plea to provide a better gathering place for the town’s elders.
Expect emotions to run high.
By collecting over 600 signatures, supporters of a new senior center were able to place this issue directly on the agenda. As the success of the petition drive indicates, older residents in Hadley are tired of being relegated to space in the former Hooker School, the current home of their center.
The 46 Middle St. building is steeped in history – and problems. People who use wheelchairs find it difficult to move about and water drips on those exercising in a basement fitness room. Walls and ceilings are pockmarked with holes. The elevator is cranky and some visitors aren’t brave enough to step aboard it.
Even the building, also used by a few other town departments, seems to say “enough.” The front entrance has been blocked this year.
In a 2013 study of Hadley public buildings, a consultant wrote, “The locations of the senior functions did not create a welcoming environment.”
That an outsider’s nice way of asking, “Uh, what’s going on here?”
In a recent letter to the editor, Lynne Edwards of Hadley, who is 65, cast the issue as a matter of fair play for those who have had everybody’s backs for so long, investing their tax dollars over many decades: “Hadley seniors have often spent their whole lives making this town the wonderful place to live that it is,” she wrote.
Edwards was too polite to say so directly, but the premise of this appeal is that on Oct. 27, residents have an opportunity to show their gratitude.
Given competing demands for town resources, however, the fight for a new senior center is in no way won. But Edwards and others are right that support for a new $3.5 million senior center would be a vote for the well-being of Hadley’s greatest generation.
The senior center project shares the special Town Meeting agenda with requests related to the town library. These two big-ticket projects run the risk of putting leery taxpayers in a naysaying mood.
Both projects have merit – and voters will be able to make judgments once more financial details are available. They shouldn’t have to choose between them, but that may be the reality.
Three warrant articles relate to the library: approval of a preliminary design, a green light for library trustees to apply for a state construction grant and using the current footprint of the Hooker School as the site of a new library.
Advocates of a new senior center want out of the Hooker School anyway, so their objectives may line up on this score with library backers.
There is no question that access to an inviting and accommodating gathering place benefits those in their later years. Too often, elders fall into isolation. Nutrition can suffer. People no longer working full time use centers to promote sociability and stay fit in mind and body – which supports successful independent living.
Needless to say, it will come down to money. While $3.5 million is a lot of it, the estimated cost of renovating the Hooker School, according to a town study, is $3.2 million – without adding air-conditioning.
By the time voters gather, more will be known about the impact of all this proposed spending.
On Oct.3, the town’s treasurer and its Capital Planning Committee will talk turkey – financially – with senior center advocates. Those who wish to learn more about the project can attend; the meeting starts at 5:30 p.m. in Town Hall.
Town Administrator David G. Nixon said Monday that if the senior center is approved at Town Meeting, Hadley would borrow to cover its cost.
Between now and Oct. 27, elders in Hadley can continue to work to make their dream of a new center come true.
Given their life experience, they’ve seen every pitch hurled. The best one might be the simplest: We were there for you.