M ore than 50 senior citizens appeared at the Yorktown Town Board meeting on Tuesday, June 23 in a show of support for the construction of a new senior center.

The current senior center is a room in the basement of the Yorktown Community Cultural Center. It shares space with the Nutrition Center, which serves meals five days a week. Frequently there are planned activities — sometimes in-house, sometimes field trips — that involve dance lessons, health advice and myriad other things.

It’s true that compared to some other senior centers around North County, it’s not too impressive. Of course, the center in Mahopac sets a high standard: it’s a separate standing structure. Unlike Yorktown’s center, it’s owned and operated by Putnam County, funded through federal grants and in-kind services.

Senior centers help build communities. They offer senior citizens a place to go and socialize. Since so many of our seniors live alone, it’s important to have somewhere they can visit with friends. Since many of these senior citizens helped build Yorktown and made it what it is today, it is only fitting that we show them our appreciation by providing them with a place to go where they be made to feel like a vital part of the community.

What we have here is a theoretically sound idea. After all, what community wouldn’t want a state-of-the-art facility for its senior citizens? The Yorktown Town Board has put out to bid for a project that calls for having a contractor build the center at its own cost and then lease it out to the town on a monthly basis with an option to buy it down the road. Some town officials have said that the lease money, and money for a potential future purchase, would come from a series of government grants. However, the amount and viability of those grants remains in question. So whether the town buys or rents, the source of the funding still remains cloudy.
Unfortunately, Yorktown’s senior center plan comes at what couldn’t be a more difficult time, economically speaking. So since it’s a plan that deserves our attention and respect, yet the fiscal timing couldn’t be worse, we think in this case the taxpayers should be allowed do decide how their money is spent.

Last year, when Somers wanted to make improvements to its library — more than $9 million worth — it put the measure before the voters, who surprised officials by giving the plan a thumbs down by a scant 53 votes. Also on the drawing board in Somers at that time was an ambitious plan for a state-of-the-art community center. In fact, when debate first began on the project, citizens showed up and complained that the plan called for only one swimming pool and not two!

But then things changed. The economy began to slow and prices began to soar — most noticeably in the construction field. The projected cost of Somers’ proposed community center jumped from $19 million to well over $20 million. Town officials there knew full well that the writing was on the wall. With the failure of the library referendum looming over them, and the cost of the community center project rising, they knew that putting the $20 million-plus referendum up for a vote would be an exercise in futility. The vote for the community center never saw the light of day.

So, you may ask, why should Yorktown officials do the same thing? Wouldn’t they be met with the same taxpayer discord as were the officials in Somers?
Yes, they would be. And that’s exactly our point.

The planning department has in its possession architectural plans to revitalize the YCCC. These plans were designed in a way so that the building could be updated and renovated in stages — including the senior center. This way, the town board could decide to spend money as it becomes available, ideally through grants.

This may be the better option at this time. Of course, there are plenty of concerns that accompany renovating a century-old building. Either way, it’s an issue for the voters to decide.