Seniors fight for facility

A large group of older residents packed a routine Advisory Committee meeting Wednesday night to implore support for a $5.8 million proposal to build a stand-alone senior center for the community. And they weren't taking "it's a bad time for that" as an answer.

"It's embarrassing," said Mary Bowers, a 70-year-old lifelong Wellesley resident, describing what facilities the town's 5,000-plus senior citizens have now for activities organized by the Council on Aging. It amounts to "three tiny offices on the second floor" and a "little room in the basement" rented from the Wellesley Community Center.

"You'll never see this great a showing at the Community Center," said Bowers, referring to the 60 or so seniors at the meeting, "because there's very little we can do there. And our movement," she concluded, "is getting bigger and bigger."

As soon as Bowers turned to sit, another lifelong resident came forward to speak to the 15-member committee.

"We put our children first and foremost," said Ruth von Kelsch. "Ask any senior, and they will say their biggest fears are that they will be a burden to the ones they love."

But, said von Kelsch, "many seniors live alone, and this," referring to the proposed community center, "is important to our physical and emotional well-being."

The proposal, rolled out to various town committees and boards last week, calls for a two-story facility to be built on the site of the former American Legion Post at 496 Washington St. The site was given to the town last fall by the local American Legion group, which could no longer afford to maintain it.

The proposal has more than $800,000 in seed money - a bequest from a lifelong resident whose will stipulates the money should be used to establish a senior center.

But it has surfaced just two months after town residents voted to approve the town's largest-ever capital expense - a $130 million plan for a new high school to replace the existing 71-year-old facility and its various additions. The project is expected to add roughly $529 per year to the tax bill for a home with the town's median assessed value, $832,000, as part of a bond issue that would take 25 years to pay off.

The town has also been talking for years about the need to address its aging elementary school buildings, and, in recent months, about the likelihood of facing shrinking local revenues and aid from the state. Another complication is the economy, widely seen as in the worst shape since the Great Depression.

"What concerns me," said Advisory Committee vice chairman David Mooney, "is getting to Town Meeting at a time when this may not be the best climate to be looking for more money for anything. It's going to be easy for Town Meeting members to say, 'We have the community center, you do have space, hold on to the lot and wait until things get better.' "

One older resident voiced caution in her comments to the Advisory Committee, which examines Town Meeting warrant articles, before the presentation on the senior center.

"Go look in the recreation center" any Monday through Saturday, said Elizabeth Powell. "Look at the usage. There are lots of rooms not in use. Some analysis might help the town in planning whatever spaces might be needed." With the current financial situation, she said, "we have to be realistic."

But others urged the town to be fair as well. Selectwoman Harriet Warshaw, who is chairing the senior center study committee, noted that the town spends $12,400 per year for each student it educates, compared with $41 for each senior.

This fiscal year's expenditures for the town's Council on Aging is $211,000, less than 1 percent of the town's overall $115 million budget. Warshaw said that amounts to about $41 per household.

The operating expenses for a new center, she said, would increase the council budget to $244,000 per year.

Advisory Committee chairman Rusty Kellogg said he does not know what the panel's recommendation to Town Meeting on the proposal will be, and its members would not share their thoughts officially.

But an unofficial poll found a split, with some members indicating unqualified support for the center and others hesitant to back another big budget item.