Not Much To Do At The Seymour Senior Center?


A lack of activities is driving seniors from the town’s Senior Center to other area centers, according to the town’s Commission on Aging.

That evaluation has drawn the ire of some center members who charge that the commission is trying to fix something that isn’t broken.

Commission members attended Tuesday’s Board of Selectmen meeting to discuss recommendations they recently made to improve attendance at the center, as well as address the way programs are administered.

A Senior Center association currently is in charge of its financial matters and collects money for activities such as trips and dinners. The commission is recommending that funds collected should be part of the center’s budget rather than handled by a separate group.

Center director Lucy McConologue said there has never been a problem with the association handling the finances.

When I took over as director, as far as the programs go all the work was done through the group — the town paid zero other than salaries and office costs,” she said. 

As it stands now, she doesn’t have the ability to collect fees for activities because there is no line item in the budget for it, she said. I’m willing to do it but you have to give me the tools,” she told the selectmen.

But one center member said there’s no reason to change anything.

The senior center has been there for 40 years and I’ve been going there for 20 years,” said Ray Rudy. We have never had a problem before this Commission on Aging came in.

They are trying to control our social life and everything else,” he said. I don’t want them to control my life.”

The commission’s only goal is to improve the center and the services the town provides its seniors, commission chairman Joan Gee said.

We just want good things to happen for the center,” she said, but right now that’s not happening. As part of her full-time job, she has worked at the Oxford Senior Center, Gee said, and was surprised to learn that many Seymour seniors go there rather than to their hometown center.

I asked what they were doing there, and they said that there’s nothing going on at the Seymour center,” Gee said. The people who have left the Seymour center have found things to do at other centers.”

There are about 3,000 seniors in Seymour, Gee said, and only about 100 use the town’s senior center. That, she said, is disturbing.

Our goal is to get people in there,” said commission member Harry Marks. We heat it in the winter and have the air conditioning on in the summer, and when I go in there I see six people playing cards.”

She doesn’t disagree with all of the commission’s recommendations, McConologue said, and she plans to meet this week with First Selectman Paul Roy and commission members to discuss the situation.

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