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Date: 4/4/2023
SOUTHAMPTON — During their meeting on March 28, the Southampton Select Board discussed the charge of the Council on Aging Director Search Committee, the group responsible for finding the town a new COA director and fire chief.
According to Maureen Groden, a member of the Select Board, the Council on Aging requested that this committee feature a Select Board representative, a former COA employee, a member of the Friends of the COA, two COA board members, a finance person and a representative from the Massachusetts COA or a COA director from another town.
This committee’s creation comes after former COA Director Joan Linnehan recently announced that she will retire in June after five and a half years at the position.
“I’m fortunate I found Southampton,” Linnehan told Reminder Publishing in February. “It’s a lovely community with great people. I’m glad that I could tie up my career here, in Southampton, and on a great note.”
The hope is for this search committee to have a tenure of six months, or until a new director is hired. Members of the committee would select the chair, while meetings will occur bi-weekly. The goal is for the committee to conduct confidential interviews with the candidates until there are a minimum two candidates. The finalists interview will then be conducted by the Select Board and the town administrator.
Select Board member Joy Piper was selected as the board’s representative for the committee.
Linnehan said she is excited about the new Senior Center, currently in planning stages, that will better address some of the needs of seniors for transportation, nutrition, social time and lack of housing.
“There’s not enough and they move out of town,” Linnehan said of housing. “People like Connie Baron and Andrea Sullivan … they still come back and visit, but they had to move to other towns. I’m hoping with the new Senior Center they’ll also get more senior housing units, maybe in the same area.”
The town hosted a public meeting on March 1 to discuss updates regarding the Senior Center search since the current one is undersized, cannot accommodate multiple activities, houses an inadequate septic system that prevents them from serving meals and offices do not allow for privacy during consultation.
The current center also lacks parking, spaces for outdoor activities, and sufficient storage for medical and other equipment.
According to David Eisen, a company principal at Abacus Design and Build — the Boston firm hired to help with the project — a location of 12,000 square feet is what is needed to accommodate the needs of seniors in today’s landscape.
“There are a series of different spaces accommodating a series of different needs,” Eisen said.
In the meantime, the town will simultaneously be working on finding a new COA director while the Senior Center plans continue to evolve.
The COA Search Committee aims to have a director by September, which means an interim will be elected in the meantime when Linnehan officially retires.