March 29, 2024

Seekonk Senior Center Almost Complete

Opening Expected Within a Month

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Seekonk seniors will soon have a place to call their own. After many years of planning and many obstacles overcome, the Seekonk Senior Center will be opening its doors in a few weeks. The grand opening has not yet been scheduled, but it is expected to take place by the end of May or beginning of June.  Most of the work on the building at 442 Taunton Avenue has been completed, says Dave Bowden, chairman of the Senior Center Building Committee. “We’re getting near the end of the project,” Bowden said.

The Reporter was recently given a walk-through of the new 6,000 sq. foot facility. The finishing touches have not been put on yet. Ladders, tools and other supplies can be found here and there, as a reminder that there’s still some work to be done.  In the interior, the walls are up and the ceilings are put in. All the rooms are built. Most of the painting is done. Only the floors have yet to be installed. The center isn’t furnished but the furniture was recently delivered and the appliances are ready to go. They will be put in as soon as the floors are completed.

Overall, the rooms are big and bright, with a lot of natural lighting from skylights. (There are 10 solar lights which will help defray electricity costs.) All the doors are solid wood and have glass to let in the light. Bowden says one of the priorities in the design was not to have any dark spaces. The Senior Center is all on one floor and at ground level. “There are no stairs for the seniors to climb and there is wheelchair access throughout the building,” said Clerk of the Works Jack Vatcher. He and Bowden have been at the senior center overseeing the project practically every day since construction began.

The heating and cooling system in the new center is state-of-the-art, says Vatcher, who is also a member of the center’s building committee. The building has been brought up to code. It has a high efficiency gas condensate boiler (installed by a local company Seekonk Heating) and rooftop air conditioning unit. The heat can be controlled remotely. The system mixes the inside and outside air to improve air quality, says Bowden. Every room will have its own thermostat. “The whole building is extremely high efficiency,” Bowden said.

Outside, the lawn will be hydro-seeded and the landscaping will be partly done in time for the opening, says Bowden. The rest of the landscaping will be completed in the fall. A new walkway was built between the center and the back parking lot of the Knights of Columbus building next door which will handle the center’s overflow parking.

Work on the project began in October and most of the interior work was done during the winter months. Crews have been working diligently since spring on the exterior.  When you walk in the Senior Center entrance, you enter a reception area, with a large reception desk. The lobby includes a café area, a gas fireplace, and a large flat-screen television.  Off the reception area is the arts and crafts room and next to that is a conference room, which can be used for town department meetings. Next to the conference room is a nurses’ area with a bathroom and shower. Down the hall from the reception desk are administrative offices for the Council on Aging director and staff. In the back is a large multi-purpose room that can seat approximately 100 people at tables. It has a soundproof sliding room divider to separate the space and allow two different activities to take place at the same time. On the wall is a 132” television screen, donated by Seekonk TV9, with a ceiling-mounted projector for movie nights. The multi-purpose room also has six skylights for natural lighting. Off the multi-purpose room is a kitchen, with two dishwashers, a double-wall oven and five-burner gas stove. The kitchen also has a full refrigerator, freezer and plenty of storage. The kitchen walls are covered in fiberglass panels for easier cleaning and to prevent the spread of bacteria.

Seniors have waited a long time for this center. Original plans called for a new building to be constructed on land next to the town hall on Peck Street. In 2012, voters approved a $2.5 million temporary tax increase to pay for the project. In 2013, an additional $386,000 was approved.  When the bids to construct a new building came in too high, the committee had to consider other options. When the former American Pools building was put up for sale, the committee changed its plans, asking voters to adjust the language on the original funding appropriation to allow the purchase of the current building. The cost was $465,000 which left more than $2 million for engineering, architectural designs and renovations. “The purchase of this building alone equaled the cost of just the site work, including the septic, at the property next to town hall,” Vatcher said. Vatcher says he’s “delighted” that the project is nearing completion.

The current senior center building committee has been working on this project for more than five years. But the town has been talking about building a senior center for a lot longer. At least two other committees were formed to work on the project over the years, but for one reason or another, it never happened. “We made a commitment that we would have something for the seniors and now we are almost there,” Bowden said. “They’ve gone all these years. It was time to give back,” Bowden said.

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