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Date: 9/6/2023
SOUTHWICK — Cindy Sullivan, the town’s director of senior and recreational operations, wants to start a discussion about the future of the Senior Center.
She and the Council on Aging board members want to open a dialogue with the community about increasing the size of the Senior Center either through building an addition to Town Hall, renovating an existing facility in town, or building a new one.
“We’re only going to get bigger,” Sullivan said about the number of seniors who look to the center not only as a place to enjoy a healthy meal with friends, but also a place to socialize, continue to learn, and maintain their fitness.
“People are living longer, they’re more active, and let’s face it, this is the place nearly all of us will end up,” Sullivan said.
She said the idea about expanding the center has been discussed for several years by the Council on Aging, but it was during the COVID-19 state of emergency that it became apparent the organization’s current space, on the lower level of Town Hall at 454 College Hwy., wasn’t really working.
One of the drawbacks is that it “doesn’t flow,” Sullivan said.
Because there are three entrances to the center, she said that frequently, as the Town Hall parking lot fills, seniors will park on the south side of the building and use that entrance instead of the main one.
Visitors unfamiliar with the center, when they open that south side door, find themselves standing at the end of a hallway, often with no one there to greet them.
“People are sometimes searching for us,” Sullivan said.
There are offices on the left side of that hallway, some of which might have one or two of the center’s staff members inside, but not always, she said.
On the right side, there are the center’s three activity rooms that, depending on the time of day, might be empty.
Those three activity rooms are the only space the center has, and it includes the dining area.
“For a small senior center, we do a lot of things, and [have] only three rooms to do them in,” Sullivan said, adding that on a recent Tuesday there were five groups of seniors playing cards.
“We’re packed right now. We couldn’t have any more … we don’t have the room,” she said.
In addition to her anecdotal evidence and feeling like more space is needed, Sullivan pointed to the amount of activity that is documented by the staff.
In the past two years, she said, 1,300 different people have come into the center, accounting for more than 46,000 visits as people “have walked through our doors.”
Sullivan said the staff doesn’t keep track of the number of phone calls it gets, but that also keeps the staff busy.
Across America, the population is aging, and Southwick is ahead of that curve.
The state defines anyone over 60 years old as a senior. Right now, Sullivan said, 32.7% of Southwick’s roughly 9,200 residents qualify under that definition.
According to the U.S. Census Bureau, while the overall population of the town has declined over the last 10 years, its percentage of elderly residents has remained roughly the same.
Sullivan wanted to make it clear that she and the staff and the seniors they serve “absolutely love being in Town Hall.”
She said have the many services seniors need are under the same roof, and that alone is invaluable.
However, while an addition to Town Hall is an option, she said she’s not sure how increasing the footprint of the building would affect parking, adding that even now finding a parking space on some days is a challenge.
Her idea is to either construct a purpose-built senior center or convert an existing facility to meet their needs.
She and the board are not lobbying for either option, yet. They just want to start a discussion with an understanding that whatever happens will take three to five years.
“We just want to get on the list. That’s how we’re starting this,” she said.
On Aug. 28, Select Board Chair Doug Moglin announced the Council on Aging’s request to his colleagues.
“We’re just hoping this will lead to healthy discussions of what the possibilities could be [for] our Senior Center,” Sullivan wrote to the Select Board.