Portsmouth Senior Center: CFP, Brown House not adequate solutions

PORTSMOUTH — On Monday night, March 8, the Town Council will discuss alternative, temporary locations for activities of the Portsmouth Senior Center while a long-term solution for the center is considered. 

The CFP Arts, Wellness, and Community Center in Common Fence Point has offered the use of its building for senior activities, while the town's Recreation Department says the Leonard Brown House at Glen Farm is another potential site that could be utilized.

The council will also hear a request from the Friends of the Portsmouth Senior Center, along with the center, to fund-raise to make the necessary repairs to satisfy numerous state fire code violations which currently necessitate the center’s closing on June 30.

The following is a memo to the council from Helen Mathieu, who chairs the Portsmouth Multipurpose Senior Center’s board of directors:

I have prepared this memo for your review prior to the March 8, 2021 meeting. There have been a lot of public and private reflections on the decision to close the Anne Hutchinson School on June 30, 2021. Our members are frustrated because they cannot express their views to the Council as easily as our seniors were able to do 40 years ago when they petitioned the town for the use of an abandoned school building for what they envisioned to become the Portsmouth “Multipurpose” Senior Center. At that time, they packed the Council Chamber to participate in the discussion. 

COVID, this crisis, and the June 30, 2021 eviction date could not have come at a worse time for us, and just when a vaccine is available and life after COVID may be on the horizon for later this year. In addition, our seniors are not comfortable with Zoom meetings or don’t have easy access. Hopefully their voices will be able to be heard when they have all received their vaccination and are able to attend meetings. 

In regard to the agenda item for the CFP Community Center and the Brown House, I would like to thank Conley Zani from CFP, and the director of Parks and Recreation at the Brown House for sharing the possibilities that could be offered to our seniors. The director and I visited the Brown House and I visited the Common Fence Point Community Center to see if their facilities might meet the needs of our center while the Church Community Housing Group developed plans for the rehab of the Anne Hutchinson School which has been home for our center for the past 40 years. 

The CFPT Center has a lovely large space suitable for classes and they can rent the room to us for only $25 per hour. We could then hire our own instructor and collect class fees from our members. The Brown House is very small and offered to rent office space for our director and staff. It offered two small rooms that we could register to use, but one room has capacity for four people, and the other has capacity for 10 or 12. Unfortunately, this is not enough room for a line dancing class or a chair yoga class, as well as many other regularly scheduled activities. The three rooms altogether are probably less than 600 square feet, compared to our current location which is 9,600 square feet. As you might imagine, this is certainly not enough space to continue with a meaningful program as we enjoy today. 

Additionally, the idea of having an office on the south end of town where seniors are expected to visit, register and pay for a class, combined with requiring them to then go to a class at the northern end of the town creates quite a burden for our members. Also, the Brown House is on East Main Road across from Oakland Farms, which creates a dangerous condition for anyone trying to turn into the Brown House lane. Our vice chair lives in that development, and like her neighbors plans her activities so as to avoid entering or leaving her home at various busy times during the day. 

In addition, when we visited it had rained the night before and the parking lot which is dirt and grass has no markings as to how to angle your car to provide safe entrance and egress. The director selected a spot to park that allowed for each of us to exit her car without having to step into a puddle or walk through mud. These safety issues are troublesome in addition to the limited space and therefore we don’t see the Brown House or the CFP as a solution. 

I know that there is no space in town equivalent to our current space and even if there were the cost would be prohibitive. However, we do need enough space for our staff and a large enough space to hold most of our current offerings to our seniors at the same location. If we have no other option available to us and must vacate our home on June 30, 2021, I have found a couple of commercial properties that would meet this need. I will be looking to negotiate a lower asking price and will discuss our options with our board in the near future.

In an effort to provide more information as to what our town’s senior center offers to the community, please note the activities listed below that we have offered or supported and hope to be able to continue to support in the future:

1. Currently the AARP is using our center as it has in past years to prepare taxes for seniors for free. This annual program runs for 10 weeks January, February and right up to April 15. There were 25 cars in our lot one day last week and 13 on both days I visited this past week. Our center is the only Portsmouth location providing this service. This service saves seniors between $150 and $250 or more each year. At last count there were 80 appointments scheduled, but this number is expected to continue to grow. At $200 per person, that’s $16,000 savings to our seniors on fixed incomes. God Bless those volunteers. This service is such a relief to the seniors.

2. The annual Visiting Nurse organization offers a two-day flu clinic. Seniors call in advance to make an appointment. There are over 100 slots and we usually have an additional waiting list. While it is true that seniors can go any day and time to any pharmacy and get this same shot, but instead they call and make an appointment with us. If we didn’t do this, some would go to their pharmacy but I suspect many would not. The center is familiar to them, the staff knows them, and they are comfortable coming to the center. We held our usual flu clinic last fall during the pandemic, and we still had a waiting list after all slots were filled.

3. The center is a Portsmouth polling place. We hosted last November’s election during the pandemic.

4. The center receives a grant from the state through the Office of Healthy Aging, formerly Department of Elderly Affairs. In exchange, the center is the “go-to” agency when any state office wishes to communicate timely information to seniors. This includes seminars from the URI Pharmacy on proper handling of medications, Q&A on interaction of medications and medical marijuana. We also often host visiting speakers from the attorney general’s office regarding scams aimed at seniors etc. and speakers or information from other agencies.

5. The center has a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with Child and Family Services which has a contract with the state to provide SHIP (Senior Health Insurance Program)-certified counselors for Newport County. We provide office space and phone service for the counselor who assists medicare recipients in selecting a supplemental medical insurance plan. This is a continuous program throughout the year as seniors age into medicare and becomes very busy in late fall when all seniors have an opportunity to change plans.

6. We have a MOU with EBCAP (East Bay CommunityAction Program) which provides a hot lunch program to seniors five days a week for a donation of $3 per lunch. Currently because of COVID, this is now a box lunch program. Our director has a health certification from the state to guarantee all proper measures are taken. The box lunch will probably continue through the summer. Hopefully with vaccinations now available, the hot lunch may return in the fall. 

7. Quarterly dinner dances are normally held, but were not held last year because of COVID. This was a very popular event which was BYOB. Music is provided live by a trio. No DJ for this crowd! Traditional couples dancing (no longer allowed because of COVID) plus plenty of line dancing so seniors can show off their skills completes the evening of socializing with friends. Recognizing couples who have recently celebrated milestone anniversaries is also part of the evenings program. However, my favorite moment is at the end of the evening when everyone leaves their seat to form a circle holding hands and sing “God Bless America.” These are some of the special moments in our town that you cannot reflect on a spreadsheet.

Our senior center has submitted a budget request to our town, as have all other Rhode Island city and town senior centers to their respective municipalities. Our request is the same as last year’s request because we expect that we will need the same amount to provide the same level of services to our senior population. Obviously, we will have an added expense of rent which will require more fundraising and searching for possible grants for this new expense. We hope that the Town Council will grant our budget request as it has in the past. 

We also hope that the Town Council will vote on Monday night to allow the Friends of the Senior Center to seek funds to make the necessary repairs required to satisfy the State Fire and Safety Board’s concerns. I had a discussion with Mr. Burlingame, the executive director of the board, and although it’s too late to appeal the February 2021 decision, the town may return to the board for a new decision or POA based on their desire not to close the building. You may recall that Mr. Rainer stated this in his remarks to the board back in February. The center continues to receive numerous calls from members and residents who are opposed to the closing in June. 

The senior center is grateful to the town for its support for the past 40 years and for the use of the Anne Hutchinson School at no charge. Most senior centers in Rhode Island are also housed in former schools or town buildings at no charge from their towns. This year marks our 40th Anniversary, we hope we can continue this relationship for the next 40 years. 

Sincerely,

Helen Mathieu

Chair, Portsmouth Multipurpose Senior Center