Golden rush

It's called the Hopkinton Senior Center, but think of it as Club Senior Citizen. With the swipe of an electronic card, members can walk in and join yoga, tai chi, or computer classes, enjoy lunch in the cafe, or lounge in the sun-filled atrium.

Residents have come out in droves. The center now serves lunch in shifts to accommodate the crowds. And even though it opened only last fall, there are already signs that the $4.2 million facility may be outgrown.

"We've run out of rooms several times," said center director Cindy Chesmore. "We always thought that one of the big pluses is we'd be able to run our food pantry. . . . Last month we had to get rid of it to make space."

Communities across Boston's western suburbs are building new senior centers or expanding existing ones, spending millions in taxpayer dollars to create havens for a fast-growing 60-plus population. Framingham, Franklin, and Medfield are among the communities building or expanding centers. Natick, Needham, and Northborough are preparing to hire architects to draw up designs.

Emmett Schmarsow, a program manager who oversees senior center grants for the state's Executive Office of Elder Affairs, said that one reason for the wave of construction might be an increase in the elderly population in areas outside of Boston that began during the 1990s.

Local officials are also acting with an eye to the future. Forecasts by the elder affairs office say that elderly population growth will continue as the baby boom generation marches into retirement. From 2000 to 2020, the number of people age 60 and over in 37 suburbs west of Boston will rise by an average of 50 percent, with some towns seeing that group more than double in size, the state predicted.

"This is ultimately a local political decision," Schmarsow said. "Nobody has to build a senior center, but it's probably a really good idea. It's part of the quality of life."

Due to the overwhelming popularity of Hopkinton's new center and others like it around Massachusetts, state officials are now thinking of expanding their space recommendations for communities considering such facilities.

Bob Pitman, chairman of the National Institute of Senior Centers, a branch of the Washington-based National Council on Aging, said Massachusetts is leading other states in senior-center construction, because in many other states there's no steady government funding for senior centers. The center he runs in Ohio, for example, operates as a nonprofit and relies mostly on local fund-raising.

In Massachusetts, local governments have been paying for senior-center building, while the state issues grants to cities and towns for programming.

Pitman said Massachusetts communities should be commended for making seniors a spending priority, but added that there is also a "political calculation" in the spending.

Seniors vote, he said.

"If a community has a long-standing tradition of providing programs to seniors, a political leader who wanted to take that away would do it at his [or her] own risk," he said.

The Franklin Senior Center, scheduled to open this fall, will be a $6.2 million marvel. Think patio, boccie court, and bistro.

It will be a far cry from its current digs in the basement of the former Town Hall.

"It's just amazing," said Council on Aging director Karen Alves. "It's like going from a dungeon to a castle."

The center is situated on a parcel that the town took by eminent domain to build a fire station years ago. When those plans fell through, some seniors suggested a center for them. The idea took.

The Town Council approved borrowing $6.2 million to fund the project, to be paid off over the next 20 years.

Judith Pond Pfeffer, a councilor and a member of the building committee, said local seniors were very organized and outspoken about the need for a new center.

The current one-room facility doesn't have enough room for the cribbage league to host a tournament. There's no conference room and not even a dishwasher in the kitchen.

The new center will have a full kitchen, a computer room, and conference rooms. State Representative James E. Vallee will hold office hours there, Pfeffer said.

"Many of the seniors in Franklin, as in other towns, have spent their whole lives there paying taxes," she said. "We needed to take care of them."

In Northborough, town officials are proposing to spend $6 million to construct a new facility that would be more than five times the size of the existing center.

Planning for the project began about five years ago. The town purchased 17 acres of land from an old fish and game club. Shortly after the purchase, the town's Council on Aging recommended a senior center on nearly five acres of the site.

The idea took shape slowly, according to Kelly Burke, director of Northborough's Senior Center since 2005.

Last year, voters rejected a request for a tax increase to pay $495,000 for an architect to design the new center and demolish the existing clubhouse. The measure failed by 91 votes.

Town Administrator Barry M. Brenner said a group of council members, as well as other supporters, lobbied for the center, giving presentations to the community. The same question was put on the ballot again this spring, and voters passed it by 357 votes.

Burke said that voters next May will have to decide whether to approve borrowing $5.2 million to pay for construction.

Even if it doesn't pass, she remains confident that the center will be built in the near future.

"It really is a beautiful spot," she said. "There's a little pond and it's just very pretty."

Needham, too, plans to build a new senior center, at an estimated cost of $6 million to $7 million.

Earlier this spring, Town Meeting approved converting an old estate on rolling conservation land owned by the state, and the process is moving along slowly but steadily. The state Legislature must first approve the plan. Then the town will hold a special election to vote on whether to spend $450,000 to hire an architect, probably next fall.

Jerry Wasserman, selectmen chairman and one of the project's biggest proponents, said taxpayer money would fund $4 million of the construction, with private fund-raising making up much of the difference.

"By and large, the majority of the community recognizes that this need exists and will support a solution," he said. "The need is already here."

Not all cities and towns have rallied to build state-of-the-art senior centers. In April, Dover scaled back its plans to build an $18.5 million "community center" that would include a senior center. One member of the building committee cited concerns that the project had grown "too deluxe."

Michael Widmer, president of the Massachusetts Taxpayers Foundation, noted that many communities are facing tight budgets and that center funding is competing with other capital needs.

Widmer said towns may want to consider "community buildings" like the Dover proposal that can be used for multiple public purposes -- for example as a youth center and library branch -- to get the most bang for their buck.

He also suggested that senior centers could operate regionally, across city and town lines.

"I think there needs to be some long-term planning as to whether these things are affordable," he said. "Is the new generation of seniors, the baby boomers, going to come? Are they going to use senior centers as people have in past generations?"

Harold Tolstrup, 79, said he couldn't wait for the new senior center to open in Hopkinton. A retired machinist, both he and his wife have lived in the town most of their lives but rarely visited the cramped, mold-infested senior center in the basement of the former Town Hall.

"I liked the people, but it was too crowded," he said.

The new senior center, by comparison, has all the amenities, including an industrial kitchen that would rival that of most restaurants, a spacious function room, an art room, and private rooms for caseworkers to meet with seniors and their families.

Prior to the expansion, Chesmore, the director, said space was so tight that caseworkers were keeping their office files in the trunks of their cars.

For many seniors, food is a big draw, with meals costing only $3 to $4. The center also reaches out to house bound seniors through its Meals on Wheels food-delivery program.

The new center sits along Mayhew Street, next to a town cemetery and an assisted living facility. Seniors were ambling about the grounds on a recent morning, planting vegetables in the garden and preparing for a plant sale.

Margaret Dewar, 77, works in the center's thrift store. She volunteers when she can but never thought she'd be a customer of the center.

"It took me a long time to admit I was a senior," she said.

One visit changed her mind. She found the people were funny and friendly and she liked the knitting group that met on Friday mornings.

Her husband doesn't join her, but she goes anyway.

"Nothing against my husband," she said. "But it's fun here."

Megan Woolhouse can be reached at mwoolhouse@globe.com.