To the editor:

I am a senior citizen of the Town of Portsmouth and a member of the Board of Directors of the Portsmouth Senior Center. 

I am very much concerned that the State of Rhode Island is requiring that the center’s home, a very old school building, be closed on June 30, 2021 because it is not considered safe, due to a lack of a sprinkler system for fire protection. The building also needs a new roof.  As I understand it,  buckets are placed around to catch leaking rainwater. As a result, there is also a mold problem.

Two years ago, the town contracted for a professional survey of the condition of all its properties indicating their state of repair and cost to repair. That report said the senior center building was in near-term need of $2 million of upgrades and would require another $3 million of longer-term upgrades.

For over the last 25 years, the senior center has rented its home (the former Anne Hutchinson School), for $1 per year contract price. The contract also obligates the town to make all necessary repairs which cost in excess of $1,000. Not only has the town lived up to this requirement, it has generously made yearly donations to the center, this year $84,000.

The senior center is well run by its staff and volunteers and, until the pandemic, provided enormously to the needs of senior citizens of our town and some surrounding communities as well. This year the senior center has faced two crises: the pandemic and the June 30 closure order. The staff has done a good job of complying with state mandates relative to the pandemic, but admittedly both the staff and its Board of Directors have left the closure order low priority until recently, perhaps thinking the town would solve the problem as they always have in the past.

As I see it, the town management is reluctant to spend a relatively large sum of money to make an immediate addition of a sprinkler system and a new roof and still end up with an old building not optimum for a senior center. Even if they did, the center would have to be closed for some time while the interim upgrades were made.

As required in its contract with the senior center, town has been investigating how to satisfy the needs of seniors by use of its other facilities. Unfortunately, the town does not have another suitable space available. Perhaps another school might be considered for a couple of months in the summer, but then what? Recently, the director of the (CFP Arts, Wellness, and Community Center) generously offered to provide their recently modernized facility for some, perhaps most of the senior’s needs. That, combined with use of the town’s Brown House, while far from ideal, would appear to the writer as a good interim solution. The Brown House, while limited in internal space, provides excellent opportunities for healthful outside activities.

Clearly a more permanent solution is required. One option is for the senior center Board of Directors to engage an architect to design a proper building to meet the center’s needs. (The senior center treasury has sufficient funds to do this.) The board would have to conduct serious fund-raising, investigate mortgage possibilities and proceed to contract for a new facility. This would be an ambitious undertaking for the board’s senior citizen members. 

Another very promising approach is being considered by the town in response to a proposal by the Church Community Corporation to build some affordable housing and a new community center with a dedicated space for the Portsmouth Senior Center, all on town property all at no cost to the town. 

I look forward to the senior center directors and the town’s managers working together to find an acceptable solution for the benefit of the town’s seniors.

John F. Brady

206 Immokolee Drive 

Portsmouth