SOUTHAMPTON — Following a standing-room-only input session at the senior center, town officials are hoping to expand services for seniors with an online survey on programming and activities they envision could be offered at a future senior center.
“We had about 70 people come to the in-person session, which is about all that the senior center can hold from a building perspective … but we have some 2,000 seniors in town, and also people who are approaching 60 in the next 10 to 20 years that would benefit from a senior center, so we decided to do a survey to try and get feedback from more people,” said Janet Cain, co-chair of the Ad Hoc Senior Center Building Feasibility Committee.
Previously, Southampton residents have spoken to the lack of suitable facilities to host the kind of programming that the senior center aims to sponsor.
The town’s senior center is currently housed in a portion of the former Larrabee School, which was constructed in the 1950s. Cain said that several residents have noted how difficult it is to hold more than one class inside the center at once because there is only one room.
“There was a pretty consistent theme about needing more space and an area to socialize. They also mentioned the need for a commercial kitchen to cook meals for people,” she said.
Residents also have suggested a new building that offers hiking paths or a patio space, so people can gather outside.
All of the information gathered between the first session and the online survey will help Allston-based architectural firm Abacus Architects + Planners in creating a feasibility study for a new senior center.
The process for the feasibility study has been at a more accelerated pace in keeping with a deadline set by the late David “Red” Parsons, who bequeathed $2.5 million toward the construction of a new senior center or an addition on the current space. In his will, Parsons stipulated that the final study for a new facility must be completed within two years of his death, which will be May 17, 2023.
In the meantime, the committee has spoken with three landowners of three potential sites of a new senior center. The properties being discussed are 89 Clark St., 79 Clark St., and 0 College Highway as well as the site of the existing senior center at 210 College Highway.
At this point, Cain said Abacus Architects + Planners has engaged a civil engineer to get a better understanding of the properties and the viability of those properties.
“Our goal is to get this study completed, so that we can be eligible to receive the $2.5 million from Mr. Parsons … and we’re on target for that,” she said. “We hope to get as many responses as possible so that appropriate priorities can be reflected in the planning and design options that will emerge.”
The survey is available at www.surveymonkey.com/r/SouthamptonSeniorCenterSurvey until Jan. 6.
Emily Thurlow can be reached at ethurlow@gazettenet.com.
