Seekonk Senior Center to Hold Groundbreaking/Unexpected Expense Adds to Cost

The Senior Center Building Committee is planning to hold a groundbreaking ceremony on Nov. 10 at 12 noon at the site of the new Seekonk Senior Center, 442 Taunton Avenue. A brief ceremony will be held with local officials, town department heads and committee members. The building was purchased by the town last fall for $465,000. The contractor started work on renovating the former American Pools building last month. Some of the initial work includes installing new sprinklers and changing from oil to natural gas. The work is expected to be completed by next spring. This committee has been working on the project for five years, says Committee Chairman Dave Bowden. The project itself has been in the works for more than 15 years. “We ran into a lot of roadblocks but we were persistent. Now we are getting it done,” Bowden said.

The committee recently learned that the tenants in the building would have to be paid relocation expenses. The cost was more than $100,000 and was paid out of the project’s budget. According to Bowden, town counsel had notified the town administrator’s office about the expense some time ago when Seekonk did not have a full time, permanent administrator, but the information was not passed along to the board of selectmen or the building committee. Selectmen are considering putting an article on the fall town meeting warrant to replace the funds that were spent.