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Designer sought for Wilbraham senior center feasibility study

Date: 9/3/2014

WILBRAHAM – The town is seeking responses to a Request for Qualification (RFQ) from registered architectural design candidates to create a feasibility study and preliminary design plan for a potential new senior center.

A set fee of $30,000 for the senior study was approved by a vote from town residents at this year’s annual own meeting on May 18, Board of Selectmen Chair Robert Russell said.

An additional $30,000 was also approved at that town meeting for a police station feasibility study, he added.

According to the town website, the study will include the space needs, a site evaluation, a preliminary design with floor plans, elevations, a site plan, project cost estimates, perspective drawings, and an implementation plan for development.

The RFQs will be opened and reviewed by Town Administrator Robert Weitz and the Senior Center Feasibility Committee after the deadline of 2 p.m. on Sept. 24. Interviews with candidates will be scheduled between Sept. 29 and Oct. 17.

The Senior Center Feasibility Committee will then forward its recommendation to the Board of Selectmen, who will award the contract. A selected designer must be able to complete the study before March 24, 2015.

Russell said potential projects, including a new senior center and police station, as well as improvements to the Wilbraham Middle School roof and the Soule Road Elementary School windows, might end up increasing homeowner taxes.

“These all add to the tax burden and we have to be mindful of what this does to the taxpayer,” he said.

Paula Dubord, director of elder affairs, said the Wilbraham Senior Center is 3,840 square feet for a population of roughly 14,000 people, the smallest senior center for a population ratio within surrounding communities.

According to the 2012 Wilbraham Senior Center Building Needs Study Committee report, Longmeadow has a population of roughly 15,900 and has a senior center with 13,500 square feet. Hampden has a population of about 5,000 people and has a senior center that’s 5,500 square feet.

The population of seniors for Wilbraham in 2012 was 3,612 and that number is growing, Dubord said.

“We are growing at a much higher rate than other communities and within the state,” she added. “The total population in Wilbraham is not changing but that demographics within the community is. The student population is dwindling and the senior population is growing.”

The study identified Hampden having a senior population of 1,247 and Longmeadow with a senior population of 4,200.

“We don’t have a meal site,” Dubord added. “One of the heartbeats of most senior centers really, is food and we don’t have that.”

The Scantic Valley YMCA Family Center next door to the senior center allows seniors to use its exercise room as a meal site for a half-hour at least once a week, she said.

 “So we rush the seniors in, sit down, they can eat, and we rush out,” Dubord added. “And it’s not a suitable place; it’s not a place you would want to sit and have a meal.”

When the Wilbraham senior center began offering Zumba workout classes two or three years ago at least 100 people showed up for the first class, she said.

On Aug. 29 the senior center hosted Zumba classes with at least six people in attendance and many people were bumping into one another in the center’s largest activity room, Dubord added.

“So, people want to participate in programs, they come and there’s not enough room, they get frustrated and they leave,” she said. “So, then our programs die off.”