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Date last updated 7:00 pm Feb 1st, 2010
The dream of a new Senior Center is moving forward.
This month the Council on Elder Affairs is kicking off its efforts and setting forth concrete goals that could have a groundbreaking on a new building a year from now.
The latest news is that the Attorney General’s Office and the Supreme Judicial Court have approved a $1 million donation from the Mary Hooper Trust, which is administered by the Social Service League of Cohasset.
“We’re really excited…we are happy we can be a part of a project that will meet the needs of the seniors in town,” Marita Carpenter, president of the Social Service League, said in a phone interview. “But, there is still a lot of work to do.”
With the promise of the grant, which will make a significant dent but not nearly cover the over $2 million estimated cost, the Council on Elder Affairs is now beginning to develop a more complete picture of the needs and desires of the community for the Senior Center.
A business plan and a capital fundraising plan are two of the main items that need to be accomplished in the coming months, according to a report presented to the Council on Elder Affairs by the senior center building ad-hoc committee Monday morning.
“This is the kick-off month. The more we can get in front of people, the more interest we can get for the project, the better,” said Glenn Pratt, a member of the building committee.
The location for the prospective senior center is in the works. Land adjacent to the parking lot of the Cohasset Swim Center, located off Sohier Street, has been targeted for the new building. For a year members of the Council on Elder Affairs have been in talks with the Trustees of the Swim Center to do a land swap in order to secure the land most suitable for the building.
A trio of articles passed at Annual Town Meeting last year gave the Board of Selectmen the authority to negotiate a land swap or other exchange with the Cohasset Swim Center. With the passage of the three articles, the Board of Selectmen has the authority to use a five-acre parcel of land to negotiate, to accept a gift (or purchase) of land from the Swim Center for the sole purpose of a building a senior center.
Selectmen Chairman Paul Carlson said selectmen would take up the land swap in February.
Elder Affairs is currently based in the front rooms of the South Shore Community Center located at the corner of Depot Court and North Main Street. There is a dining room, a small office space, and a shared kitchen. Both the senior center and the community center have grown considerably over the years and both organizations need more space.
Preliminary designs for the new senior center propose a three-floor building on a 10,000 square foot footprint. The basement would ideally be for storage and a “command center” for emergency management. With the emergency management component a federal Homeland Security grant is available. The second floor would be devoted to the Senior Center and its many functions. The third floor would be devoted to as many as 10 senior affordable housing units.
The incorporation of the affordable housing opens the project up for support from the Community Preservation funding. Town Meeting allocated $220,000 to develop plans for the project last year.
Al Moore, chairman of the Planning Board, was at the meeting to give an overview of his board’s role in the project. The new building would likely need to receive site plan review.
“It gives a forum to vet the project with the neighbors,” Moore said. “The more ventilation the project can get, the better.”
Elder Affairs director Coral Grande agreed, “we want to make sure this is a transparent project. If there are issues, concerns, naysayers, we want to hear them now and address them.”
Moore suggested once plans begin to solidify the Planning Board would welcome the building committee to come for an informal meeting to discuss the project.
The report sets forth a fairly aggressive timetable, given the amount of fundraising and steps it takes to build a new town building, to have a groundbreaking in the spring 2011. The opening of the building is slated to be spring 2012.
Mary Hooper had a dream
When Cohasset (summer) resident Mary Hooper wrote her will in 1924 her number one wish was to build “an old age home” in Cohasset. She left the sum of $25,000 for that wish.*
However, even in the 1920s, $25,000 was not enough to build and maintain an old age home (an antiquated term that likely meant something similar to a senior center). Hooper’s heirs began to fight over the money.
The court ruled that the money would be placed in a very restrictive trust: income from the principal must be used to meet elderly needs in the Cohasset area.
Over the next 50 years church organizations and the Social Service League facilitated matching the needs in the community with the trust’s funds. During those years the Social Service League put the Hooper Trust funding in their “Wilcutt Fund” named for Hooper’s father.
In 2006, the long-standing trustee of the Hooper Trust, Davis Howes, wanted to step down from the role. He approached the Social Service League and they jumped at the chance.
They began the legal process to change the trustee-ship over the League, a process that took nearly two years. In September 2008, the Social Service League began to administer the Hooper Trust.
Then, the League knowing the needs of the elders in the community and the town, began to work toward making Hooper’s dream of a “home” for elders a reality.
With the help of Sullivan and Worcester, they petitioned the Attorney General to release a portion of the principal for a new Senior Center. After a successful meeting with the Attorney General’s office, Division of Charities, the League, with the AG’s support, gained approval to use the funds from the Supreme Judicial Court.
The Social Service League is now pledged to donate $1 million to the building of the new Cohasset Senior Center. In order to release the funds several major pieces need to come together including legally obtaining the Swim Trust land, developing a business plan and an outline of where the rest of the capital cost is coming from.
In the meantime, the Social Service League is continuing their other work in Cohasset and the surrounding community.
*Social Service League president Marita Carpenter provided the background information on the Hooper Trust.