Call it Senior Center-itis — inflammation of the Senior Center. That’s been the diagnosis for the popular Northampton destination on Conz Street ever since a shakeup in management there in April of 2018, following the retirement of former Director Linda Desmond.
Heather Cahillane, the popular former assistant director and volunteer coordinator for Senior Services, resigned after being passed over as the next director of Senior Services, and with her four members of the Council on Aging, the committee that advises Senior Services, also called it quits.
Enter Marie Westburg, formerly in charge of the Williamsburg Senior Center, whom Mayor David Narkewicz appointed to the post after appointing a screening committee to review 30 applicants; he cited her background in social services and record of developing programs and securing grants as reasons for her hire.
Emotions were already running high when Westburg started last spring — and, more than a year later, they’re raw. Members are upset about recent changes that have been made at the Senior Center, a $3.9 million energy-efficient building that opened in September of 2007 — and we understand why. There seems to be a lack of effective communication between management and members at the center, not to mention a lack of, well, fun.
Last October, amid a plan to expand the center’s hours and offerings, the popular Northampton Bridge Club — affiliated with the American Contract Bridge League — was forced to move out after receiving notice that rental fees would be doubled, the center wouldn’t rent past 10 p.m., and the club would no longer be able to use the room it had been renting.
A representative of the Bridge Club said at the time that these changes made it impossible for the club to continue at the Senior Center — and that Westburg refused to meet with club members in person to discuss the new policies. Granted, the center began offering wholesome evening activities, such as ukulele lessons, a meditation group and a cooking class demonstrating the uses of local apples. And while that’s all fine and dandy, sometimes a lady just wants to play competitive bridge and vie for an international ranking.
Even with the ousting of the Bridge Club, other more casual bridge games continued at the center — until this past September when Westburg announced that they would be suspended until further notice, following a kerfuffle between some group members and staff during a game.
The bridge incident was “just the tip of the iceberg,” said one player, and sure enough, in the weeks since, Senior Center members have aired a host of other concerns about everything from an increase in exercise class prices to sudden cuts to the cafe menu — soda and candy are no longer for sale. As one member put it: “At our age, sometimes you need a chocolate bar to get through.”
Sometimes we all need a chocolate bar to get through. But in all seriousness, we’re sorry that so many seniors feel their hangout has become a place of “punitive governance,” to quote member Kimberly Lambert.
Lambert was one of more than 50 people who attended a meeting at the Senior Center earlier this month, many of whom voiced complaints about management.
It used to be a happy place, said another member, Nancy Duseau, but now “we don’t feel this place is our happy place.” Duseau shared how, at one point, she had attempted to talk to Mayor Narkewicz about her concerns; soon after, she said, Westburg called her and “scolded me for going to speak to the mayor.”
“We feel like we get scolded like schoolchildren,” she said.
It’s sad that at, a place where people are supposed to be enjoying themselves, they are instead feeling unwelcome and patronized. We hope that Westburg works on better communicating with members, which she has pledged to do. In the meeting after public comment, Westburg said she is creating a binder of frequently asked questions for the center and starting monthly coffee sessions for people to meet with her. She also said that the center has surveyed seniors about fitness offerings and is looking into options that are flexible and fiscally sound. “We’ve been asking for input, and we’ve been taking it all into account,” she said.
We respect Westburg’s call for seniors to come to her directly to address issues, and we hope to see her and the Council on Aging collect and sift through that feedback to start healing the rift that has emerged between many of the club’s members and administrators.
That said, we don’t think the mayor should wait on Westburg and the council to figure it out. The council is an advisory board, while the mayor has governance power over the director position. Given the volume and consistency of the complaints, he should be proactive and join the conversation to ensure that seniors can enjoy their leisure time in a comfortable and positive environment. This problem needs a hands-on approach, perhaps even a mediator.
To start, we’d like to see the center bring back a little fun: a favorite game of cards, candy and, yeah, the occasional Coke.