Selectmen choose MBTA lot for senior center

Published by The Boston Globe

Needham selectmen voted Tuesday night to locate the new senior center at the MBTA Needham Heights parking lot on West Street despite several comments from seniors denouncing recommendations to put the center there.

About 45 people came to the selectmen’s meeting to hear their decision, and a few seniors used the public comment period before the meeting to request the center be located on Greene’s Field on Pickering Street.


The Senior Center Exploratory Committee, which the selectmen charged with the task of choosing a location, recommended three locations last month with the MBTA lot as its top choice. Greene’s Field, the committee’s second choice, has caused controversy throughout the town because some people don’t want lose open space at the downtown site, which includes a baseball field and a playground.

“How the seniors are thinking and feeling is not pleasant,” said Jim Hunter, a senior who was at the meeting. “Thousands of taxpaying seniors are not being treated with the respect they deserve.”

The third recommendation, Ridge Hill on Charles Street, was not discussed.

The seniors pointed out that the center would only use a third of Greene’s Field, with room left for the playground to remain. The seniors said a center there could offer outdoor activities, would be close to many area businesses and would promote intergenerational activities between toddlers on the playground and their grandparents at the center.

Susanne Hughes, chairman of the Council on Aging which runs the current Senior Center at 83 Pickering St., said the council supports the recommendations of the exploratory committee. She also said they recommend a size of 20,000 sq. ft.

Selectmen expressed doubt that a center located at Greene’s Field would pass Special Town Meeting Nov. 8. They voted unanimously to propose a warrant article at Town Meeting to appropriate funds for a further feasibility study on the MBTA site and to prepare designs.

They will also propose an article to swap the town-owned Hersey lot on the corner of Great Plain Avenue and Broad Meadow Road for the MBTA-owned Heights lot.

Selectmen said using the MBTA lot would create the least amount controversy of the sites, though not everyone in the town would be satisfied with the decision.

“There isn’t a magic site that pleases everyone,” said John Bulian, chairman of the Selectmen. “The goal of the town is to move forward and build the senior center.”

Selectman Denise Garlick, a co-chair of the exploratory committee, said the MBTA lot recommendation addressed many of the seniors’ main concerns. The seniors wanted a site located downtown, accessible from main roads and on a flat surface—all requirements which the MBTA lot fulfills.

“Your voices have not been ignored,” said Garlick, who is also running for state representative on Nov. 2. “We stayed true to the principles you wanted. We have a Board of Selectmen clear about our desire to make this happen.”

The Finance Committee will begin discussing the cost and financing of the project at their meeting tonight, she said.

Town Manager Kate Fitzpatrick provided a preliminary estimate of costs and finance options at the meeting. At 20,000 square feet, the size most people involved in the issue have advocated, the center would cost about $7.9 million. At 18,000 square feet., a center would cost $7.4 million and at 16,000 square feet. the project would cost around $7 million.

The town can afford $5 million without a vote on a tax increase and the remaining balance could be financed through fundraising, reallocation of prior warrant articles, rearranging capital for fiscal year 2012 and grants, said Fitzpatrick. The project cost also might be lower than expected, she said.

Whether to use a property tax increase is another necessary decision in the financing of the project, she said.

“I don’t think I’ve seen an issue debated more hotly [in Needham],” said Selectman Jerry Wasserman. “A segment of the community isn’t happy, but we have to get this through. We’re going to make this work.”