The senior center will be built with a combination of private, city and federal funds.
This is one of the former Facemate buildings which will be razed to make way for a new Senior Center.CHICOPEE – The City Council approved the final funding needed to build a new Senior Center Tuesday night.
The 12-0 vote will allow the city to borrow up to $4 million to construct the building on the former Facemate property located off West Main Street. The Council had previously approved borrowing another $5 million in federal grant money to fund the rest of the project.
After the vote, Sandra Lapollo, executive director of the Council on Aging and the senior center, said she was delighted with the decision.
“It is key to this project to move forward to get an appropriate building for older adults in this city,” she said.
The vote will allow the Friends of the Senior Center to kick off the next phase of its fund raising efforts. The group has already earned about $475,000, Lapollo said.
Some City Councilors said their concerns about building a new center were based on being able to afford the estimated $6 and $8 million construction cost. Another about $2 million is needed to raze some of the vacant industrial buildings and clean up any hazardous waste on the site.
“I would support it. Creative funding is the issue here,” Councilor Charles M. Swider said.
But Swider said he still has concerns about the increased costs for operating expenses when the new, larger senior center is built.
There are three sources of funding for the center construction. The city will borrow up to $4 million, the Friends of the Senior Center has agreed to raise $2 million toward the building and the city will borrow $5 million from the federal government and pay that money over 20 years using some of the annual federal Community Development Block Grant funds it receives.
The city receives about $1.4 million annually from the federal entitlement program that is designed to assist anti-poverty agencies and improve neighborhoods with a large number of low-income residents.
“I’ve never been against a new senior center. It does tie up Community Development Block Grant money for 20 years,” City Councilor John L. Vieau said.
His concern about using the former industrial site for the center had been assuaged by engineers who assured any contamination can be cleaned before the center is built.
For some City Councilors, the promise of being able to clean up part of the 72-acre property, which also houses more than a dozen buildings from the former Uniroyal Company, is a big benefit.
“That property will be cleaned up with this arrangement,” City Councilor Robert J. Zygarowski said.
Of the $5 million being borrowed through the federal block grant program, $2 million will be used to raze some of the buildings and clean the property. The remaining $3 million will go to the construction of the center.
“The most important thing is we are voting in favor to get this property cleared,” Councilor George R. Moreau added.