Senior Center continues era of progress, re-development

Date: 9/12/2011

Sept. 12, 2011

By Chris Maza

Reminder Assistant Editor

EAST LONGMEADOW — Since its renovation began, there has been a buzz surrounding the Pleasant View Senior Center.

Now that the project is completed, Council on Aging Executive Director Carolyn Brennan hopes that when the lights go out, the hum of a generator will be what folks hear.

Brennan told Reminder Publications that the Council on Aging is investigating avenues for the installation of an electrical generator to keep the senior center up and running in the event of emergencies and power outages.

“The biggest [reason] is the fact that we are growing, especially with our meal programs,” she said. “The home delivered meals are our primary concern. We can get seniors here in case of an emergency, but the ones that can’t get out of house are the ones we focus on.”

The Senior Center offers on-site meals through its newly revamped kitchen in addition to its Meals on Wheels program, which distributes healthy food to senior residents who are home-bound or otherwise unable to cook for themselves.

A fund-raising effort in memory of the late former Council on Aging (COA) Executive Director Rosalind Clark afforded the senior center the opportunity to purchase a walk-in refrigerator and freezer in order to store the proper amount of food to serve the growing population in need of the service.

“The problem is when we have a power outage, we lose [the food],” Brennan said. “Typically if the power is off for two days, we have to throw it out.”

Twice this year the Senior Center had to dispose of their entire food supply and replenish it because of power outages.

Brennan said the center does offer “staple meals” that do not require cooking in the event of power outages, but those offer limited options in comparison to the freshly cooked meals delivered by volunteers.

Brennan would also like to see the senior center act as a secondary emergency shelter to compliment the existing one at Birchland Park Middle School.

“It’s always a good idea to have a shelter in another part of town,” Brennan said. “This building is more accessible for a lot of the seniors and the long hallways at Birchland can be difficult for some to navigate.”

The COA is currently assessing what route they plan to take in coming up with the funding for the project with the focus primarily on grants. All told, Brennan said that adding a generator would result in costs of tens of thousands of dollars.

“We could go cheap and buy one that just supports the refrigerator and freezer, but that would defeat the whole purpose,” Brennan said. “In order to get a generator that could support the building, plus growth, it could be an estimated $65,000 to $70,000.

“We are looking at grants and I have a lot of experience working to get funding for things like this. I am confident that if we went to the town, they would help us with some of the money, but we want to do our due diligence before doing that. The town has a lot of other financial issues to deal with,” she continued.

Growth is a continuing focus for the COA, Brennan said, as the demands on the center have increased since she was hired in 2007. According to 2011 federal census data, East Longmeadow has seen a 23 percent jump in residents age 62 and older, she said.

“It’s a significant increase,” Brennan said. “The first reason for it is because the look of this building is completely different. It’s very welcoming.”

Brennan said the senior center’s amenities, including state of the art media and fitness facilities as well as a billiard room, make the center “look more like a clubhouse.”

The additions to the kitchen offer a more diverse menu than ever before, as well.

“We used to average 18 to 25 people per day, with the exception of Thursdays, which are our busy days,” she said. “Now we average close to 45 people a day and Thursdays we can have up to 120. We’ve had over 100 people register for the fitness room and we had a movie in our media room the other day and it was literally standing room only.”

Brennan also indicated that an increase in willing and able volunteers has boosted involvement by seniors.

“East Longmeadow has been very supportive and has funded staff positions for support staff that allows us to have a lot of different programs,” she said. “When you are able to properly staff your programs, they are going to grow.”