Program utilization and operating costs for proposed new Center for Active Living were topics of conversation

September 26, 2025 By Carol Britton Meyer

As part of the continuing conversation about the proposed new Center for Active Living adjacent to Bare Cove Park, CAL Director Jennifer Young talked about program utilization this week, with projected operating costs also explained. The select board met jointly with the CAL building committee and the advisory committee Thursday night.

During another joint meeting Sept. 30, information will be available about the estimated building and utility costs.

If the project passes muster at next Spring’s annual town meeting, the targeted opening timeframe is 2028.

The program utilization plan is based on current programming used at the Marshfield senior center, which a number of Hingham seniors use regularly.

Marshfield was used for comparison purposes because it is a South Shore community with comparable general and senior populations and has a newer center that is roughly the same size as the proposed Hingham CAL design currently under consideration.

Marshfield currently provides programming to 3,874 individuals annually from a total senior population of 7,232.

“The proposed utilization plan projects the same usage against a larger senior population in Hingham,” Young explained. Both the number of seniors and use of the senior center are expected to increase greatly in future years.

The projected senior population in Hingham in 2028 is about 9,000, minus 1,400 Linden Ponds residents.

Young emphasized that Linden Ponds residents would be welcomed at the new senior center if the additional project funding is approved at next year’s annual town meeting, while at the same time offering many similar programs and activities of its own.

Existing staff would be adequate for new building
The existing CAL staffing for four days a week would be adequate to cover the expanded hours such a new senior center would offer – five days a week, from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m., Young said.

However, as the result of a new senior center, Town Administrator Tom Mayo explained that one additional full-time maintenance worker would be added to the town hall budget at approximately $60,000, “with a possible increase to the group insurance budget of about $10,000. The expense line in the town hall budget would increase by approximately $25,000 for custodial supplies and alarm costs,” he said, for a total additional expense of about $100,000.

All hand mowing would be done by the onsite maintenance person, with seasonal property clean-up by the DPW as well as the addition of parking lot plowing to the DPW schedule, which the DPW director said will not require additional staffing, according to Mayo.

In addition, thanks to the high number of volunteers who staff many of the programs, grants, donations through the annual Council on Aging fundraiser, the CAL revolving fund, community partnerships, and fees paid for some offerings, the cost of the current CAL programming is “zero,” she said. This scenario is expected to continue at the new CAL.

Yvette Kanter, a member of the Hingham Friends of the Center for Active Living, noted that the CAL budget is only .3% of the overall town operating budget. This is at at time when about 30 percent of Hingham’s population is over age 60, with those numbers expected to increase as time goes on.

A day in the life of a new senior center
Young went through a day in the life of the new senior center, focusing on program schedules in various spaces, such as the dirty and clean art rooms, media room, health and education spaces, fitness, health and wellness, the teaching kitchen, and multi-purpose room, among others.

If the funding is approved for the project– estimated at this time to have a price tag of about $34 million, with an update next week – an online tool will be available on the CAL Building Committee link on the town website for those using the center to find out “what’s happening on a specific day and what’s planned for all five days of the week,” Mayo explained.

Young further noted that the goal is for Hingham to be recognized as a dementia-friendly community through a special program and to potentially offer a self-funding day program for individuals who need assistance, providing some relief for their caregivers.

Building Committee Chair Tom Carey explained that “everything we’re talking about is customary in the Council on Aging world. We’re not creating programming to fill the space we’re going to build – quite the opposite,” he said. “The committee’s goal is to construct the building to be an appropriate size to accommodate the programming that Hingham deserves.”

Carey also noted that the governor issued in May “the state’s plan for dealing with communities’ growing senior population, which involves talking about how COAs and senior centers are critical to the state’s efforts” – with a focus on healthy aging.

He also emphasized the Donahue Institute’ role in helping communities –including Hingham – determine “what they ought to do to take care of the needs of their elderly populations.”

‘This isn’t guesswork’
Coming up with a proposal for a new Hingham senior center isn’t “guesswork,” Carey said. “There’s tons of data to support it. Our committee, with town meeting authorization, rolled up their sleeves and spent the past year [in part] determining what an appropriate size would be for the new senior center – not oversized — we’re not trying to build a Taj Mahal.”

A Linden Ponds resident urged the building committee “not to make the new facility too small. You’ll get what you pay for, and it won’t be adequate.”

Longtime Hingham resident Dick Ponte said there’s no need to worry about finances, including the $100,000 figure shared by Mayo. “We’ll get the volunteers and raise [that amount] and more,” he said.

Joan Endyke, who taught a fitness class at the senior center some time ago, said she knows at least 25 people who no longer use the senior center “due to a lack of parking and inadequate space, because it’s too frustrating.”

COA member Joshua Ross expressed appreciation to Young for sharing “an outstanding amount of data” upon request recently.

He also noted that there’s a waiting list to participate in the town’s tax workoff program that allows seniors to work in various capacities for the town in exchange for some property tax relief and that the new center would offer numerous volunteer opportunities to those wishing to participate in the program.

Concerns expressed about wildlife in the area
Linden Ponds resident Hilary Hosmer expressed concern about the proposed location of the new CAL due to the effect the loss of so many trees to make room for the building would have on the existing wildlife habitat and the expected traffic challenges at the site. “For ecological reasons, I think [a new location should be found],” she said.

John Deeley, who frequents the current senior center, asked why some people are challenging the size of the project before all the project costs are known.

Select Board member Liz Klein, acknowledged that he made “an excellent point,” stating, “We don’t have enough information to change the design at this point. There will be a lot more information shared next week about project costs.”

At that time, she said, “people will have a really good idea about what the cost will be, including by square foot, and we will be able to make more informed decisions about optimizing the space. This is the elephant in the room – what the cost will be. We hope to build something the town of Hingham will be proud of.”

For further information, go to
https://www.hinghamanchor.com/select-board-and-ad-comm-review-proposal-for-new-center-for-active-living-with-cal-building-committee/ and https://www.hingham-ma.gov/888/Center-for-Active-Living-Building-Committee.