Chatham Selectmen Finding New Senior Center’s Final Location

 

COURTESY OF THE CHATHAM COUNCIL ON AGING

CHATHAM – Due to excessive potential renovation costs that would be needed to reuse the existing Stony Hill Road location, the Chatham Senior Center may be considering other possible sites.

Project architect Joel Bargmann said the Stony Hill Road location would need more parking, and an expensive underground parking lot would need to be constructed to keep up with the level of use the center routinely gets.

 “We’re able to get parking in a building below the building, parking underneath the existing parking lot, and we’ll deck over it,” said Bargmann on how to manage the parking situation at the center.

The unique parking solution comes from the natural land’s shape, with the back of the parcel sloping away and down to let the center occupy multiple floors above and below ground relatively easily.

The town would need to find temporary locations for senior center services for up to two years during construction.

“It’s doable, and it’s a little bit different for a Cape Cod community, but we’re able to get the required parking and required building on a one acre site, which is pretty interesting,” said Bargmann.

Finding space for the temporary move could add up to $350,000 for renting space, or possibly even $750,000 if the town went with temporary modular units to house the programs.

With everything considered to renovate the Stony Hill Road site, new cost-projections of the project indicate it would cost about $10.9 million.

Other options for a new location for the senior center include 1610 Main Street or the Marconi campus in Chathamport.

The Main Street location was originally going to cost the town $900,000, but the landowner has since lowered the price to $750,000, making the location a better possibility for the center.

The vote on the final location for the senior center will be held tonight at the selectmen’s meeting.

About Grady Culhane

Grady Culhane is a Cape Cod native from Eastham. He studied media communications at Cape Cod Community College and joined the CapeCod.com News Center in 2019.



CapeCod.com
737 West Main Street
Hyannis, MA 02601
Contact Us | Advertise Terms of Use 
Employment and EEO | Privacy