Interest Ramps Up In New Senior Center

The numbers alone tell the tale: Flush with facts following the National Conference on Aging she attended last week, Dagmar Ridgway, executive director of the Canoe Brook Senior Center, noted that the population in Connecticut now ranks seventh among states by age. Between 2006 and 2009, the 65+ population in the state grew 10 times faster than the general population, whose overall age decreased.

In Branford, seniors now account for 27 percent of the population, Ridgway said. Increasingly, she said, seniors are staying put near the friends and family who give meaning to their lives. Some are ​“snowbirds,” although others move away and later return.

Then, there are the younger seniors — the baby boomers who peopled the schools that went up in droves in the 1960s and 1970s and are now reaching senior status.

“Senior centers are an extremely vital link,” she said. 

Last summer, some members of Branford’s Canoe Brook Senior Center approached Ridgway, determined to revive the interest in a new senior center that dimmed when a three-way swap of buildings that would have given the seniors a new center became defunct in April, 2011. Click here to read why.

The group had watched as a new fire headquarters opened last year and debate over a new public works structure continued.

“’Hey, what about us?’” Ridgway said the group mused. ​“They don’t want to be put on the back burner. I think it’s wonderful. I’m in the background. 

“What they’re looking to do is raise awareness during election time,” she said. She added that the group wants to canvas the candidates to find out what they intend to accomplish during any time in office. ​“This group is really vocal … They’re setting an example for the community.” 

“The staff is fantastic, but it’s really pretty bad over there,” said 88-year-old Helen Kelsey, a member of Voices for Branford Seniors, the group that is spearheading the drive for a new center that, she hastened to add, need not be the Taj Mahal. 

The Eagle recently caught up with Kelsey and other seniors to listen to their views. Kelsey lamented that the cement in the ramp to the present building, which does not meet American with Disabilities Act standards, is ​“so broken up” that seniors in wheelchairs are afraid to use it. There’s the parking at Canoe Brook Center, which, in the seniors’ experience, becomes so limited that the parking lot at Richlin Home and Auto takes the overflow.

Seniors who park at Richlin’s in the Country Plaza must climb a set of stairs to get from one parking lot to the other if they cannot secure one of four handicapped parking spaces to the rear of Richlin’s lot and walk around the back of the building to the far side if they need to use the ramp.

Kelsey said of members of the center: ​“These are people with canes. These are people with walkers … people with wheelchairs. They hardly go.”

“It’s ridiculous. It’s just ridiculous. Even the ramp,” said senior Florence West. At 77, she is a former professor of occupational therapy in Florida, Massachusetts and Connecticut. ​“When I came here four years ago to live with my daughter, she took me and showed me where the Senior Center was. I just could not believe it … the two flights of stairs and the way the ramp was.”

First Selectman Candidates Weigh In 

​“I do believe that the placing of the new senior center is the highest among the town’s building projects, and I’m pleased that senior citizens are finding their voice and expressing the need very clearly right now. It’s a necessary part of the process,” said Andy Campbell, the Democratic candidate for first selectman. ​“It’s my view that for persons impacted by the senior center time is of the essence. Time is the element we can ill afford to waste, especially because the building has been dysfunctional for so long for so many folks.”

Campbell, an attorney, noted that, as a conservator, he has represented seniors in town who have been unable to navigate from the parking lot to the ramp to the doors. He affirmed that the doors the seniors use are heavy doors without a push-button entry.

“It’s not an adequate facility for our seniors — and one in four citizens in Branford is a senior,” he continued. ​“I’ve represented folks who sit at home all day and can’t go [to the Center] unless they almost have a chauffeur to take them and carry them up the stairs”

“Let’s be clear. I’m talking about a replacement for what we have,” Campbell said.

Jamie Cosgrove, the Republican candidate for first selectman said of the Center, ​“Unfortunately, it’s a project that’s been stalled for 12 years. The facility that we have is very inadequate to meet the seniors’ need, so we should move the project forward.”

“The first thing I would do is propose an ordinance to form a standing building commission to oversee all public building projects,” Cosgrove continued. ​“When you try to move forward with these building projects, they become far too political. That’s why I want an independent building commission.”

“They’re all priorities,” he said of the town’s capital projects such as public works or two public school renovations. ​“That’s why we need to do a strategic longtime plan and prioritize these projects. It’s no secret there’s a number of projects that have been coming down the pike.” 

Jaycey Wyatt, who is running for the town’s top office on her newly formed Independent Branford Voters Coalition line, has said at public meetings that the town’s seniors need new housing and a new senior center and she has a design for it. 

Layout Of Senior Center

Senior Kelsey noted that, inside, the present Senior Center lacks an elevator, and the Center does not have fitness equipment. Nor does it have a dedicated fitness room. The four rooms that the seniors use are scattered throughout the building.

“We don’t want any more band-aids on the present building,” Kelsey averred.

“Seniors who have a place to exercise, [receive proper] nutrition and sociability have lower medical bills,” she said she has read. ​“Sociability is so important at this age.” 

“This is what we’re telling the candidates,” she continued. ​“We want it [a new senior center] done in two years because another slate will come up in two years. We don’t want a study done of the land and all the buildings … We want it started — we ​’d like to have it finished — in two years. When they want things done, they can get it done.”

Kelsey conceded concern about the impact of a new center on taxes exists. So, she said, some senior members are exploring what they as private citizens can do, such as applying for grants or fundraising on a private level.

“There’s always going to be concern about taxes,” said senior citizen West, ​“but you know, it’s a trade-off.”

Taking a different tack from Kelsey, West demurred on a two-year time limit for a new center. She also said a new senior citizen location need not occupy a new structure, although she said a new building would be nice. ​“Just something that people could get to and really utilize,” she termed her goal. 

“The primary concern is access — the building is beyond repair for the needs — the space is not adequate, and the parking lot is not adequate in terms of accessibility,” she said.

West continued, ​“This senior center must be a source of embarrassment for this town. It’s a joke. How many seniors can’t do it [use the center] at all? They’re not socializing or having any enlightenment or recreation.” 

West, whose own respiratory ailments make it difficult for her to access the Center, chairs the ​“Hot Topics” sessions at the senior center. These are monthly discussions dedicated to social issues. In August, concern about the status of a new senior citizen center arose, and it has occupied the ​“Hot Topics” agenda ever since. 

Soon ​“Hot Topics” goes on the road. In the auditorium of the Blackstone Memorial Library on Oct. 24 at 2 p.m., Voices for Branford Seniors is holding a session where members of the Branford community can discuss the Senior Center. West said the public is urged to attend.

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