SOUTH DEERFIELD — At the first of three planned forums, town officials and consultants from edmStudio laid out the costs of two potential future homes for the South County Senior Center.

The center’s three communities are in the process of investigating whether residents prefer constructing a new building on the parcel where the Deerfield Town Hall currently stands at 8 Conway St. or if they want to build an addition onto the Whately Town Offices at 4 Sandy Lane.

Attendees joined the center’s staff, edmStudio representatives and the Senior Center Board of Oversight on Feb. 26 to see conceptual designs of the two sites, as well as cost estimates. Senior Center Director Jennifer Ferrara said she has been reaching out to many residents in recent months and the message is clear.

“‘We need a new location, that’s one senior center,’” Ferrara quoted, to claps from the audience. “This is a really important event and really important matter to me.”

The Senior Center, Ferrara said, has outgrown the approximately 1,800-square-foot building it rents at 22 Amherst Road in Sunderland, as membership has surged in the last five years, which brings a need for larger programs. The center currently has about 671 active members — with 120 from outside the three towns — compared to 262 active members in the two-year period from 2019 to 2021.

“We’re making an argument now. We’re finally at adequate staffing where we are now and we need to maintain our current level of service. We need one new center to serve the current and projected number of older adults in our community,” Ferrara said. “It’s shown by facts, it’s shown by the progress we’re making, it’s shown by the services we offer and how many people are now coming into the center.”

Chris Wante, a principal with edmStudio, laid out the two proposals, each with around 15,000 square feet of space, and led off with Deerfield’s Town Hall. The proposal is to tear down the current building — the Police Station will stay — and construct a two-story structure that could mesh well with the ongoing municipal campus projects Deerfield is undertaking.

While a two-story building is less than ideal due to the increased costs associated with elevators, Wante said they will be able to make it work. The ballfields near Town Hall, though, will have to be “shifted” to accommodate parking. There will be about 71 parking spaces dedicated to the Senior Center, but the entire campus is projected to have about 145 if needed.

“The idea here is this would be more or less shared municipal campus parking,” Wante said. Key factors that make this site attractive, he added, include a central location, plenty of municipal infrastructure already in place and the area is relatively flat.

The estimated price tag is about $16.9 million, which includes construction, demolition, site work and hazardous material abatement, as well as “soft costs” like furniture and other interior services.

The Whately Town Offices present a similar opportunity for a larger Senior Center, but in the form of an addition, rather than a new build. The biggest change for the site would be the addition of another entrance to the property, which would create an efficient “two-way circulation” system. Not only would this entrance keep traffic flowing, Wante said, but it is part of an effort to address the 45-degree angle the existing building is set on.

In total, the Whately site comes in slightly under the Deerfield projection, at $15.5 million. There would need to be some site work, though, as the floor would need to be brought up to be level with the existing building.

“The building costs are a little bit less because we’re dealing with some renovation work inside the building, so there’s a little less on the building side,” Wante said. “We’re working with the existing building, which is always nice in terms of saving a little bit of costs. It fits all the programmatic needs on the site.”

Estimations for tax impacts on residents are limited at this time, but Deerfield Finance Committee Chair Julie Chalfant did compile some projections based on a $15 million loan paid over 20 years with a 3% interest rate.

In that scenario, the average single-family home tax bill increase for Deerfield, Sunderland and Whately residents would be $205, $174 and $206, respectively. Deerfield is responsible for 50% of the center’s costs, while the other two towns chip in 25% apiece.

While those in attendance at the forum were generally supportive of pursuing one of the sites, folks like Deerfield resident Jeff Upton emphasized that there will be an impact on taxpayers and alternative funding sources should be thoroughly explored.

“Everybody is a little concerned about where our tax base is going,” Upton said, adding he’d like to see grant funding secured. “There’s a lot of pros and cons to [a new center] but I’d like to see people make a great effort.”

If residents really want a new Senior Center, Deerfield Select Board and Board of Oversight member Trevor McDaniel said, they need to make those wishes known.

“You need to come to the finance committees and you need to come to your Select Board meetings and voice that you want this,” he said. “It won’t happen without a community groundswell of support, it just will not.”

The second forum took place last Friday in Whately, and a third is scheduled for Wednesday, March 19, at 2 p.m., at the Sunderland Public Library, 20 School St.

Chris Larabee can be reached at clarabee@recorder.com.