Senior Center: How Big?

Josiebelle Johnson was knitting a colorful afghan Tuesday (Feb. 6, 2007) at the Senior Center. Other seniors played cards or billiards. Some just chatted.

The question of when they will be doing these activities in a new center hinges on a raft of approvals that Mayor Sharon Robinson-Briggs explained at her monthly visit with the seniors. Although Dornoch Plainfield LLC has received final site plan approval from the city Planning Board to build a new center and 63 condos half a block away from the present center, not all permits and approvals from other governmental entities have been received. Construction is now slated for spring.

But another question is how big the center will be.

Early on, seniors were promised 17,000 square feet of space in the basement level of the former Tepper’s building, now called Horizons at Plainfield. Seniors rejected that offer.

In various presentations, Dornoch has mentioned square footage as low as 12,000 square feet for the new $15 million center/condo project. The center’s building committee intends to get to the bottom of the matter through its monthly Building Committee meetings with the developer and city officials.

--Bernice Paglia