In June of 2003, the Town Meeting voted to establish a Senior Center Building Committee and appropriated $125,000 for the Schematic Design of a two story building on the Kendall site with a second floor shell. The Moderator appointed the following members of the committee: Patricia Brusch, Susan Burgess, Lynne Doblin, Walter Guertin, Neil Hegarty, Mary Ann Johnson, Rob Jones, Paul Maney, Karen Pressey, Penny Schaffer, and Phyl Solomon. Nava Niv-Vogel is the Town Liaison to the committee.
The first order of business for the committee was to elect officers for the committee as follows: Karen Pressey, Chairman; Neil Hegarty, Vice Chairman; and Lynne Doblin, Secretary
The next task for the committee was to prepare a Request for Proposals for architects to indicate their interest in our project. In answer to the RFP which was posted in October, we received 44 proposals. That list was narrowed to 15 firms who were invited in to be interviewed. Based on those interviews four firms moved into the next phase and the finalist will be chosen early in 2004.
Committee members were invited to an open meeting at the temporary site at Our Lady of Mercy to hear directly from seniors about their thoughts on what a new center should include. We also look forward to the result of the survey of seniors to be circulated by the League of Women Voters seeking input from seniors about their current use of the center and what they would like to see in a new facility. Once an architect is chosen we intend to have more meetings with seniors and other members of the neighborhood and residents of Belmont to hear their concerns and suggestions. We are further seeking input about possible uses of a second story of the building. We will continue to visit other senior centers which have been recently completed to evaluate design features that they have found to be particularly useful and/or
attractive.
The committee has voiced a strong interest in pursuing the inclusion of sustainable design principles and renewable energy strategies into the design, materials selection, and construction of our new facility. We have been in contact with Barbara Barshalom of the Green Round Table who provided valuable resource material and we will work with our architect to further investigate environmentally sound, economical and practical applications of “Green” concepts.
The committee hopes to complete the design phase of the building by mid-May, 2004 so that the Fund Raising Committee can make use of the design in raising awareness of the advantages of this new building and to continue to build support for this long awaited facility for Belmont residents.
Respectfully submitted,
Karen Pressey, Chairman
| 
