GREENFIELD — Town Council Vice President Isaac Mass filed a motion Thursday to reconsider funding a new senior center, which was rejected by the council during its meeting Wednesday night.
“I decided to do that because I have always been for a senior center — not necessarily the plan that was presented based on cost and what was included,” Mass said. “I wanted the mayor to have every opportunity to present an alternative plan that might gain the support of the full council.”
The council will revisit the request during its April meeting, meaning Mayor William Martin has a month to put together a new plan.
Martin said he’s working on scheduling a meeting with the Senior Center Building Committee and the project manager to discuss options moving forward, and plans to invite councilors with specific concerns to attend that meeting.
During Wednesday night’s council meeting, the request did not receive the two-thirds majority it needed to pass, with five councilors voting in favor and six voting against it.
Councilors who rejected the funding said they chose to do so because of the hefty $5.25 million price tag — which was amended to $4.75 million by Mass as a compromise — as well as the lack of multi-use options for the building.
The amended amount also did not pass, with five councilors voting for it and five against it. One councilor had left the room when the vote was taking place.
Martin said the purpose of the building has always been a combination community/senior center.
“It’s always been a multi-use plan; that hasn’t changed,” he said. “Whether we can relocate town departments in there is something we will discuss, but it doesn’t seem plausible.”
Mass, who didn’t vote for the full $5.25 million senior center Wednesday, was in the majority and was therefore able to file the motion for reconsideration.
“It was one of the factors that weighed into how I voted,” he said. “If the mayor does not come back with changes in 30 days that make it dramatically less expensive or allow it to do more, I would still be a ‘no’ vote,” Mass said.
At-Large Councilor Penny Ricketts said she felt better about voting in favor of the funding after hearing from Finance Director Marjorie Kelly that the senior center would not go to bond borrowing until 2019 and wouldn’t hit tax bills until 2020.
Many said they recognized the importance of the new building but said it’s just not affordable for the town at this time.
“It’s an exorbitant fee,” Precinct 2 Councilor John Lobik said, while Precinct 4 Councilor Wanda Muzyka-Pyfrom called the $5.25 million a “dreaded amount.”
Others said the current plan doesn’t include enough opportunities to make it a multi-use building.
Precinct 8 Councilor Ashli Stempel said community use of the building would come secondary to programming, and as the programming grows she said she fears the community component would diminish.
“I think it’s important to separate the seniors from the building and the building process,” she said. “As much as we want to give every unique group their own building, we need to look at multi-use buildings.”
Stempel said she would prefer to see the project go back to the drawing board so everyone is satisfied.
Those who voted in favor of the original $5.25 million request were Precinct 1 Councilor Verne Sund, Precinct 5 Councilor Robert Wainstein, Precinct 7 Councilor William Childs, Ricketts and At-Large Councilor Mark Maloni.
Lobik, Muzyka-Pyfrom, Stempel, Precinct 6 Councilor Maria Burge, Precinct 9 Daniel Leonovich and Mass voted against it.
Those who voted in favor of the amended $4.75 million amount were Burge, Leonovich, Mass, Ricketts and Maloni. It was rejected by Sund, Lobik, Wainstein, Childs and Stempel. Muzyka-Pyfrom had left the room when voting took place.