DEERFIELD — The Selectboard decided to not move forward with leaving the South County Senior Center agreement on Monday, a decision that sparked applause from the audience at Town Hall, and board members are instead suggesting that the towns issue a request for proposals for a leased programmatic and administrative space.
Selectboard Chair Blake Gilmore first floated the possibility of Deerfield leaving the agreement at the June 1 Selectboard meeting. Selectboard member Trevor McDaniel opposed the idea, calling it a “colossal mistake.”
After the June 1 meeting, Whately and Sunderland’s town administrators received a draft letter from Deerfield Town Administrator Christopher Dunne, reflecting the official document that would have been sent if the Deerfield board decided to leave the agreement.
According to Whately Town Administrator Peter Kane, the letter stated that Deerfield hopes to remain a part of the South County Senior Center if the three towns can agree on its next location, once the lease for its current location at 22 Amherst Road in Sunderland ends next spring. The message presents the Deerfield Town Hall at 8 Conway St. as the “single ‘viable’ option” for the Senior Center, once renovations for the 1888 Building, which will become Deerfield’s municipal offices, are complete, according to Kane.
About 40 residents packed the Deerfield Town Hall meeting room on Monday night before the Selectboard members made their decision. Many attendees urged the board to remain a part of the Senior Center agreement.
“How can we provide the same level of services, programs and activities if we go it alone with less financial resources? What about the emotional cost to all the seniors affected by this change? Where is the empathy for the devastating effect it could have on the human relationships, the bonds of friendship and support that enhance seniors’ health, well-being and quality of life?” Deerfield resident Doris Bardwell asked. “Let’s get it right together. United we stand, divided we fall.”
Deerfield resident Julie Cavacco expressed disappointment with the Selectboard for considering leaving the agreement, claiming that “it really highlights the sort of ‘us and them'” mentality.
Instead of voting to leave the agreement, the three Selectboard members decided to send Whately and Sunderland a letter stating that the towns should issue a request for proposals for a leased programmatic and administrative space for the South County Senior Center as it approaches the end of its lease.
According to Dunne, the letter also mentions 8 Conway St. as a “Plan B” if the towns do not find a building for the Senior Center by the end of the lease at 22 Amherst Road.
McDaniel described 8 Conway St. as the “best opportunity we have” for consolidating the Senior Center’s services into one central location. Although the center is currently located at 22 Amherst Road in Sunderland, programming is split between the First Congregational Church of Sunderland, Whately Town Hall, Cadence Yoga Center in Sunderland, the South Deerfield Polish American Citizens’ Club and Deerfield Town Hall.
While the towns continue to seek funding for a space that would suit the Senior Center’s needs, McDaniel said “it would be a disservice not to take advantage of [8 Conway St.]” when the Deerfield Town Hall moves into the 1888 Building.
“I think it strikes a good balance and it addresses some of the concerns that the other member towns have had,” McDaniel said of the letter that mentions the request for proposals. “I think it’s the right move forward. … I’m not in favor of separating. I think we work better together.”
Gilmore and Deerfield Selectboard member Tim Hilchey also supported sending the new letter and not leaving the Senior Center agreement.
“It wasn’t the object at the beginning of this to separate the towns, it was more on trying to figure out how to get [a new Senior Center location] done and move forward with it,” Gilmore noted.
Gilmore added that he is concerned with the new Senior Center home being a “good building that we’re not going to be spending a fortune on.”
“[Town Hall at 8 Conway St.] is an option because, basically, we already had it,” Gilmore continued. “If one of the other towns had a building like this, then it would be a discussion that we would have with the other towns as far as moving into that building itself.”
“I never viewed giving notice as cutting off discussion,” Hilchey echoed. “I viewed it as potentially we can focus our discussions, but I would rather not have Deerfield be blamed if the Senior Center is not going to work, because I don’t think that any town wants this to fail. We want the Senior Center to succeed.”
Hilchey also described 8 Conway St. as the best option available.
“I think what we need to do is take a year, rebuild the trust we have in each other, ask the [Senior Center Board of Oversight] to talk to all the people that go to the Senior Center and respect their opinions about what they want in the Senior Center,” Hilchey said.
Later that night, the Whately and Sunderland Selectboards discussed the Deerfield Selectboard’s decision at a joint meeting.
For the Sunderland and Whately chairs, the Deerfield Selectboard considering leaving the Senior Center agreement damaged the trust they had in the Deerfield officials.
“I’m glad that they decided to turn around before they went another step further, but even floating the idea of leaving is a huge blow to the trust,” Sunderland Selectboard Chair Nathaniel Waring said. “If a partner in a relationship threatens divorce, that relationship is never the same, because once that’s on the table, once you’ve done that, you can never really fully trust that.”
Waring said he foresees a price tag in the millions to appropriately renovate 8 Conway St.
“It’s not suitable for a senior center,” Whately Selectboard Chair Fred Baron added. “You have this building, you nip here and tuck there, suddenly it’s a senior center? Putting bunny ears on your puppy doesn’t make it a rabbit.”
Baron and Waring decided to send a letter to the Deerfield Selectboard encouraging its members to work together with the two towns and “honor the [Senior Center Board of Oversight’s] authority” in finding a new home for the South County Senior Center, as Sunderland Town Administrator Becky Torres first floated.
“They’re going to have to do something, I don’t know what, to show that they really want to work with all three towns,” said Joyce Palmer-Fortune, the Whately liaison for the Senior Center Board of Oversight. “There’s a lot of trust that needs to be rebuilt.”
