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Date: 5/10/2021
SOUTH HADLEY – After a years-long process, the brand new South Hadley Senior Center building is nearing the end of construction.
Leslie Hennessey, who serves as the director of the South Hadley Council on Aging (COA), said the process to build a new senior center in town began in 2016 with a feasibility study. From there, she said they worked through the “process of getting a design together and then going to town meeting members to get the bond for the $9.8 million.”
After being awarded the bond, she said they then worked with an architect to design a building that would fit the needs of the council. “Then we moved into working with the architect to put together a concept of the new center and we were going to need of the new design,” he said.
Hennessey said the building that the council was previously occupying was the Woodlawn Elementary School. She said the school, which was in its original state, had “a couple different occupants throughout the years,” but the council was the main occupant. “That’s where our location started. Slowly as it grew, it grew from one room to two rooms to the hallway,” she said. “The entire building was being used, all the rooms were being used.”
While she said the center was “great” and served its purpose, the building had problems as it was nearly a century old. “It was a great little center, it had some challenges, the town we knew it had its challenges,” she said. “The building was almost 100 years old, it had all the troubles a building that age had.”
After the COA staff moved out of the building in November 2019, Hennessey said the old building was razed and construction on the new building began. Hennessey said the new building was “much different than the brick schoolhouse,” but would also pay homage to the former building. “We have kept the stone that says Woodlawn School, and that’s going to be incorporated into the building. There are some things that the architect said, ‘Let’s put that there and pay respect to the history,’” she said.
The COA staff, Hennessey explained, moved into the large parish hall at the St. Theresa’s Catholic Church where they rented space to host programs and conduct business throughout the duration of the construction.
However, due to COVID-19, like many other senior centers across the region and nation, they closed their doors to the public in March 2020. This, she said, also impacted construction to some extent and caused some delays in the process. “There was a COVID outbreak at the construction site and there were a variety of delays in getting needed equipment and fixtures before the next phase of building could begin,” she said. “That seemed to be across the board for a lot of new construction during COVID, it was hard to get things shipped.”
One benefit of constructing the building during the pandemic, however, Hennessey explained was that they were able to modify some of the construction plans to accommodate for new needed safety measures. “During construction we made some changes to some of the areas in the building to take into account COVID-19. So we have some plexiglass partitions up and we’ll be able to take them up and put them down as needed,” she said. “We feel really confident that we have a building that we can welcome seniors back in a safe way, that’s really exciting.”
Now, she said, the building was nearing the final stages of construction and would soon be ready for the COA staff to move back in. “Right now we are in a really exciting position, the substantial completion date is going to be May 21. The following week furniture will be going into the building and then on June 1 the staff and I will be moving in, moving equipment into the building,” she said.
At the time of speaking with Reminder Publishing, she said construction crews were “trying to tie up some loose ends with electrical,” putting in sprinklers for fire protection, installing the lighting system in the new multipurpose room, finishing roofing work and installing acoustical sound management in the multipurpose room to help with sound. Additionally, she said there would be a patio outside of their breakout space area which would be worked on during the week of May 10.
“A lot of things are falling into place. In the administration area, those rooms are all painted, the cabinetry has gone in and carpeting,” she said. “That was very exciting to see.”
Additionally, she said the new building would have a cafe space that they didn’t have in the former building. “We’re excited for that added feature, they started mill work for that this week. The footprint is there, the cabinetry is going in,” she said. “Everything was on paper before, now it’s actually real items for real, so it’s interesting to go in there now and I’m planning where things are going to go in the cabinetry and where we’ll put long term storage.”
Also new to the outside of the center was a longer walking trail and new fitness equipment. These additions, Hennessey said, would benefit both the general public and the center. “The center is going to really benefit from all of those new features. We had originally a nice walking path [and] sidewalk around the building that our social stole’s would be able to use,” she said.
Now, she said the walking trail had been extended adding distance to it. “We’ve almost tripled the distance of that walking path, and we’ve added two stations of adult fitness equipment. It’s a great gift to be able to have that read for seniors as well. Not only the building, but the outdoor areas that will be much improved,” she said. “We’re excited to use that walking path for groups and the fitness equipment as well and see what we can do with that as far as programming.
She said while the COA had begun to host some in person programming in April after working with the Board of Health, they would continue to follow safety guidelines to host limited programming even when they move into the new building. Having people back in person for some programming, Hennessey said, had been “a huge morale booster” for the staff despite being spaced six-feet apart in a 3,000 square foot gym.
“We work in human services because we love to be around humans, to have folks back in the building, to hear their stories and see them is a real treat. We did do curbside events throughout the pandemic, so we did see our seniors. The conversation, it’s been really really nice to have that connection,” she said. “That’s good normal stuff being able to talk to someone, it’s more normal than not. As we move into the new center, as those guidelines for how many folks you can have indoors go higher, we’re just going to follow that.”
Hennessey said COA staff were aiming to host a June 23 grand opening for the new center, however, it would not be the traditional grand opening they once envisioned. Instead, she said, staff would “do a pre-taped video of staff introducing the different rooms in the building.” The tape, she said, would be aired for the public during their webinar style grand opening that evening which will also feature speakers such as the COA board of directors and town administrator discussing the building. Additionally, she said the COA would host a curbside event that same morning where members of the community would be able to drive up and receive “a grand opening bag of goodies.”
“We want to make it as inclusive as possible for seniors and the community. It’s going to be on channel 15 live, we’re excited to be able to reach out to a lot of people [and] get that first glimpse of the building,” she said. “It’s not what we thought of, but it is what it is. You got to take what you learn from COVID-19 restrictions, how do you make things works within the guidelines, how do you adapt?”
She said the COA would “definitely be getting the word out when we’re opening, when the grand opening is [and] when tours can start.”
Those interested in more information on the grand opening or wishing to be up on the email for the COA’s month newsletter, The Golden Chronicle, can email the center at lhennessey@southhadleyma.gov, call them at 538-5042 or visit their website at https://www.southhadley.org/324/Council-on-Aging.