Senior center proposed

Hospital could partner with city

The 152-year-old brick schoolhouse turned senior center holds lots of memories for Joseph "Pep" Cornacchio.

So a recent proposal to move the center out of its spot on Broad Street and into a large commercial office space on Boston and Bridge streets, which the North Shore Medical Center also is interested in using, didn't excite Cornacchio.

"I think a lot of people feel like it's a good place to be, even though it's old," Cornacchio, an 87-year-old former local football star, said of the building where he meets regularly with other members of the Council on Aging's writer's group. "I remember I was on the Parks and Recreation Board and we used to have meetings there. It's a good function place, really."

Talk of building a new senior center is nothing new. In 1998, then-mayor Stanley Usovicz suggested building a new center near Salem Willows, a park that looks out over the ocean. And last year, Mayor Kim Driscoll's attempt to move the center to an old church in the Point neighborhood got shot down.

In a phone interview on Tuesday, Driscoll said talk of partnering with the North Shore Medical Center on a new senior center came together quickly. The proposal, which is still in the preliminary stages, would have the hospital using upper-floor space for physician's offices and laboratory services, according to a letter Driscoll sent to members of the city's Senior Center Committee late last month. A ground floor space would go to the senior center.

"If we can make that work, we would purchase it as a condominium," Driscoll said of the space. "I think it's huge from the perspective of having a physicians' office right in the same place where we provide senior services. . . . Hopefully, you'll go see your doctor and then maybe stay for lunch, join a program."

Driscoll said funding would come in part from a Housing and Urban Development loan, as was planned when she tried to get the center moved to the old St. Joseph Church site on Lafayette Street.

David King, director of communications and public affairs for the hospital, said officials at the North Shore Medical Center look at partnering with the city on a joint space as a "creative and interesting idea."

"For it to make sense for us to continue with discussions really requires that the financial work for us," King said. "We are sort of awaiting some of those details."

Wherever a new senior center eventually lands, committee cochairwoman Teasie Riley Goggin said first the group must have a public hearing with "the city of Salem - young, old, baby boomers - " to find out what they want.

"I think the greatest partnership in the whole wide world would be the city of Salem with the seniors and the seniors with the city of Salem," said Goggin, who dislikes the idea of putting a center on Boston and Bridge and sharing the space with a hospital.

"That's like saying, 'OK, we're going to hold your birthday party in a cemetery,' " she said, adding that patrons need a space with an outdoor recreation area. "Seniors are energetic and vibrant and happy individuals. Seniors do more than just play bingo."

Erin Ailworth can be reached at eailworth@globe.com.