Senior Moments

Last night, at the Common Council Youth & Aging Committee meeting, Council president Don Moore revealed that there will be a special meeting at 6 p.m. on Monday, October 7, before the informal Common Council meeting, to vote on the lease agreement with the Galvan Foundation to locate the senior center at the Hudson Armory, now to be known as the Galvan Community Learning Center. With this announcement, Moore explained that "the financing isn't all in place," and, as a consequence, work on the senior center, which was supposed to begin this fall and be completed by spring, will not begin this fall and probably won't be completed until October 2014.

Alderman Wanda Pertilla (Second Ward), who chairs the Youth & Aging Committee, made no attempt to conceal her annoyance with the postponement, declaring: "We need to talk with them." Pertilla, who said the senior center was "near and dear" to her and claimed to have "campaigned on it," acknowledged that "it's a great deal we got from them," but went on to say, "Projects with this particular person are not what they appear to be"--presumably referring to Eric Galloway.

Pointing out that "we don't control the construction timeline," Moore argued that, to have a successful senior center, "we need more than just a building." Currently, the program for seniors consists of aerobics, which attracts an average of 15 people; bingo, which draws 20; and yoga, which has 8 regular participants. He suggested that the City hire a consultant to "come in and create a program." He suggested too that Doris Moore, commissioner for aging, needed a small advisory group to help her plan activities for seniors. Pertilla and Alderman Ohrine Stewart (Fourth Ward) both seemed confident that a paid consultant was not needed and that the job of planning senior programming could be done by "five or six people who want to do the job and decide what is valuable programming for seniors in Hudson."

On the subject of programming for seniors, in May, the Arts, Entertainment, & Tourism Committee awarded $350 for a bus trip to be organized by Doris Moore. Moore reported last night that the seniors were interested in taking a bus trip to Saratoga, presumably to visit the RACINO. 

John Mason has more about last night's Youth & Aging Committee meeting in today's Register-Star: "Council to vote on senior center."