Home for Veterans and Renovated Senior Center on Dennis Town Meeting Warrant

dennis-home-1DENNIS –  Dennis residents have several major spending decisions to make at Tuesday night’s town meeting, including plans to renovate and expand the senior center on Route 134.

Article 13 seeks a $5.5 million tax override to fund the project.

A larger proposal that included a heated swimming pool and would have cost nearly $13 million was rejected by Dennis voters at the spring town meeting.

The most recent proposal calls for renovations to the existing facility and an addition to the structure.

In other town meeting action, voters will decide on a $200,000 article that would use Community Preservation Act money to help fund a home for veterans.

It would be located on town-owned land along Route 134 near Route 6A.

The proposal calls for a five bedroom, colonial style home that will serve homeless veterans in need of transitional housing and other veterans below the poverty line.

Click here to view the Dennis town meeting warrant

Veterans comprise almost 13 percent of the town’s entire population and 27 percent of those over 65.

There are about 150 veterans in Dennis who live below the poverty level, of $11,880, and about 70 of them are disabled.

“All of those folks are at risk of homelessness at some point in time and we are hoping that we can create a safe landing place to take care of our veterans,” Town Planner Dan Fortier previously said.

The home will not be a homeless shelter, according to Fortier.

“The folks who will be here will be transitioning to real life if they have been on the street,” he said.

Fortier said a high number of the towns vets that are in dire need are older than 65.

“This might be the place they live for the rest of their life,” he said. “There might be some short-term people there for a few months. The expectation that a year or two is not out of the question for the people who move in here.”

An appeal of planning board’s authority to issue a special permit for the project by a nearby resident will not stop the article from being considered.

The appeal was filed in Land Court in Boston last week and asks that the permit approval be annulled.

Dennis town meeting voters will also decide on articles that would ban single-use plastic bags and Styrofoam containers.

Money for new stairs at Corporation Beach is also on the warrant.

Dennis town meeting begins at 7 p.m. at the Nathaniel Wixon Innovation School on Route 134.

 

 

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