GREENFIELD — The Council on Aging’s board is considering trying to change the name of the John Zon Community Center to its originally planned name of a senior center.
The desire to change the name is in part response to recent debate spurred by this year’s budget deliberations.
While the Council on Aging was fully funded at about $104,000 by the City Council Wednesday night, a major point of contention was focused on how the community can have better access to the center.
The question Council on Aging members are now raising is: Should the seniors have to share?
“Without the seniors rallying, marching for this building, we wouldn’t be here,” Patricia Jordan, treasurer, said. “I don’t know why we’re being pushed aside.”
At the Council on Aging’s regular meeting Thursday afternoon, the group decided it wants to bring its request to change the center’s name to the City Council in January.
Residents will elect a new mayor and half of the council this November. Some members on the current council were involved in changing the center’s name to a community and not senior center.
“The history of it,” member Ginger Carson said, “it’s absurd.”
“The fact that the charter says senior center and defines senior center, and the fact that the charter says nothing about community center means we are an entity and the community center is not,” Carson said.
The John Zon Community Center, which many people in town refer to as the senior center, opened a year ago. The building was planned as a senior center for its use and space. The Council on Aging used to run programming from the senior center on High Street until it moved into this building.
“Nobody ever cared about us when we were on High Street,” member Dorothy Gagnon said. “Now all of a sudden they want to.”
Part of the clash over the senior center comes in its name. Gagnon said, “John Zon was Mr. Senior Center” and not ‘Mr. Community Center.’”
When the building opened, it was named a community center, as seen inscribed in granite out front. Built on taxpayer dollars, residents have wondered out loud recently why programming isn’t run for everyone in the community.
“The concept of a community center I think means a different thing to every person,” Council on Aging Director Hope Macary said. “Part of that overarching conversation is what will that community center be from 5 to 9.”
Mayor William Martin, who delivered a report to the board at the start of the meeting, said the city doesn’t have the resources “monetary or human to cover that time.”
He said he agreed though that “the name change doesn’t change the building,” which was designed as a senior center.
Questions lingered on a formal policy and fee schedule for how community groups can rent or book the space in the evening. Martin and Macary said the policy is near complete, but the fee schedule is the difficult part to work out.
Board members asked why Greenfield High School, which is the other relatively brand new building that is fully compliant for accessibility standards, doesn’t get more scrutiny for being a community space.
“It seems absurd that a $20 million budget can’t come up with some extra money for custodial,” Carson said. “We’re stuck with the exact same issue but with no money.”
As in previous budget cycles, both the schools and the seniors were caught in the crossfire of political budgeting process.
With the budget — roughly 97 percent of which is dedicated to staffing — behind them, the first action the Council on Aging board members hope to pursue is getting the building a sign that says “Senior Center.”
Martin said if the Council on Aging presents a plan for a sign, he will try to make it happen before his term is up this year. The sign can go in or around the garden, he said, as opposed to on the roof like previously suggested.
“It’s really important seniors feel like this is a place for them,” Vice Chair Janice Colbert said. “I know a lot of them don’t feel like that.”
Colbert said whether it’s “ageist” or “anti-senior” to try to remove senior from the name of the center.
Macary raised a similar point. She talked about how she has a son who is a senior in high school and how that’s an honor. She talked about a long time friend who was promoted as a senior partner at her organization.
“No bad connotation of senior in those applications,” Macary said, “but when we apply senior to the building … that, people, is ageism.”
“Part of our job, whether or not the name gets changed on the building, one of the things we can work on is just educating and combating ageism on the local level,” Macary said. “Helping people understand that we are all seniors-in-training.”
The director of the Council on Aging concluded her point with: “Senior is not a four letter word.”
You can reach Joshua Solomon at:
jsolomon@recorder.com
413-772-0261, ext. 264