Noble Street resident Brian Judd discusses the design of a new senior center planned for a site on his street with Peter H. Wells, a principal of The Berkshire Design Group Inc. after a public hearing staged at Westfield Middle School South last night to inform residents about the planned senior center. (Photo by Carl E. Hartdegen)
WESTFIELD – Residents of the Noble Street neighborhood failed to attend a public meeting last night to hear details of the proposed Senior Center construction project.
Public officials, including Mayor Daniel M. Knapik and Council on Aging Executive Director Tina Gorman, and the city’s design team far outnumbered residents in attendance.
At least one resident questioned that low turnout because of the lack of publicity, but was assured that residents living in the area of the project site will be notified by registered mail for the planned January Planning Board public hearing which will address the special permit, site plan and stormwater management plan associated with the $7 million construction project.
The design team presented details of the site plan and floor plan of the two story, 20,000-square-foot facility that will be constructed on the former Mary Noble estate.
That team also responded to resident questions pertaining to traffic movement within the site, means of vehicle egress, pedestrian access, reconstruction of Noble Street and utility upgrades to service the new center.
Other question raised by residents included screening and lighting design to prevent interior lights from illuminating nearby residences.
“The journey to get to this point has been one of a lot of research,” Knapik said during his opening comments. “Tina (Gorman) and the building committee members went to a lot of other (senior center) locations to determine not only what we need now, but what we’ll need in the future and how to allow the center to grow to meet those needs.”
Gorman said that the senior center project was initiated more than 20 years ago when senior citizens identified the need for a new facility and began to communicate that need to the city’s elected officials.
Gorman said that recently that process has included an educational component.
“A lot of people think of the center as a place where seniors go for lunch, to play cards or bingo and go on trips,” Gorman said. “And yes we do all of that.”
“But there has also been a educational process about what we really do at the center,” she said. “We are really a social service agency.”
“We are the first place that seniors can go to to deal with very confidential issues: health, legal issues, financial issues,” Gorman said.
The present location does not have sufficient facilities to provide the level of privacy required for those confidential discussions. The new center will have a number of private offices where senior can receive services in a setting designed to provide confidentiality.
The city is also planning to move the Officer of Veteran Affairs into the new senior center who also needs a privacy component. Gorman said the COA and veterans office work in close cooperation because of the number of seniors who have served in the nation’s military.
“We looked at a lot of buildings,” Gorman said of the design effort. “Every senior center is built based on community needs. A cookie-cutter approach does not work because every community’s needs are different.
“I feel like we’ve done our homework. We’re still tweaking,” Gorman said.
The Building Committee has established a timeline to push the project toward construction next fall with the opening of the new facility slated for the fall of 2015.
The committee anticipates a construction phase of 14 months beginning late next summer or early fall if the other milestones are met, beginning in December when schematic designs will be completed and in January when the project will be presented to the Planning Board for special permit, site plan and stormwater permit approval.
The project will be advertised next March, with the bids due by May 7 to allow officials time to present a definitive bond number to the City Council for approval before the beginning of the council’s summer recess next July. There is a 20-day appeal period following the final passage of the bond by the council, meaning that construction could begin by late summer or early fall under that timeline.
Dan Garte of Dietz & Company Architects of Springfield, part of the project design team, said that the building “is being designed to be fairly loose so it could be adapted for future needs.”
Garth said that areas on the second floor will not be “finished” to kept the construction cost within the $7 million budget identified by city officials and that those spaces can be completed to address future needs of the Council on Aging.
Garte said that the building is sited to have a setback from Noble Street consistent with existing residences and that the height, scale and appearance will also reflect the “residential character” of that neighborhood.
