AMHERST — An exercise room featuring treadmills, recumbent bikes and other fitness equipment will be coming this fall to the Amherst Senior Center, part of an expansion of space for town elders within the Bangs Community Center.
With no new building on the horizon for Amherst seniors, the town will soon be making changes to the 70 Boltwood Walk site, which originally opened as a school and has served as the Senior Center since 1978, alongside offices for several other municipal departments and nonprofits.
The new exercise area, which has been envisioned for more than 15 years after Cooley Dickinson Hospital pledged to donate the equipment, will be in a space where the Health Department offices are currently located, on the main level next to the rest of the Senior Center. In turn, the Health Department will be moving to the upper level, where the Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Department is located.
The Amherst Recreation Department, too, will be moving into the upper level, relocating from its space at Wildwood School this summer. For a decade, Amherst Recreation was at the Amherst Regional Middle School, after leaving the lower level of the Bangs once before — when it was known as Leisure Services and Supplemental Education — to make way for the John P. Musante Health Center.
Town Manager Paul Bockelman said the changes should bring synergies to the departments while enhancing the experience for senior citizens.
Community Responders for Equity, Safety and Service had been on the upper level as well, but as part of the ongoing $2.8 million renovation of the building, the department has moved to the lower level’s Pole Room, near the health center. The Pole Room in recent years housed the town’s famed Civil War plaques. That exhibit will reopen when the expanded and renovated Jones Library is complete next spring.
The work on the Bangs includes installing a sprinkler system, replacing an antiquated fire alarm system and upgrading deficiencies in accessibility. This has caused some disruptions, leaving most of the Senior Center lounge and puzzle and game room off limits, with those activities being relocated to the Glass Room on the lower level.
The Senior Center also continues to use the Large Activity Room on the main level and Room 101, though both are considered shared spaces.
Daniel Garcia, the town’s new senior center director, told people gathered for a recent Cuppa Joe event with Bockelman that he would like to see more intergenerational programming, with the possibility of having kinesiology and sociology interns from the University of Massachusetts Amherst and Amherst College helping out with the exercise initiative.
Garcia said he will be visiting other senior centers to see how Amherst can emulate them. He noted that he would also like to gather once or twice a year with area senior center directors for discussions on how best to meet senior needs.
Having started in July, he is also plotting a grand reopening of the Senior Center when the renovations are complete early in 2027, suggesting that this could coincide with having a new main entrance for the building from the parking area near Johnny’s Tavern.
A recent survey showed 70% of town seniors are not using the site, though it’s uncertain if parking is a deterrent. The center will also be sending 4,000 copies of its printed newsletter out through a new partnership with UMass.
Council on Aging Chairwoman Jeanne Horrigan said the panel still wants to get on the capital list for a new building, which has been discussed by seniors since the first decade of the 21st century.
