April 15, 2026 Submitted by Johanna Seltz, Hingham Resident
I’m writing to ask you to vote against moving forward with the proposed Center for Active Living in Bare Cove Park. I hope the town will instead look more creatively at how to keep the Center within Town Hall. The current space could be tripled easily, more parking added in the grassy area between the street trees and veterans’ memorial in front of Town Hall, and demand for parking accomodated by opening the Center on Friday and Saturday when town offices are closed.
I believe the current proposal – building a Center that is five times the size we now have – is too big because it is based on inflated numbers of people who would use the Center. Those numbers include the more than 1,200 people living at Linden Ponds retirement home who are unlikely to use the center – I checked and only a handful go there now – and the hundreds more who live in various assisted living and nursing homes in Hingham. The proposal also assumes that people in their sixties will use the center – which is unlikely and not the experience of other senior centers in Massachusetts.
I don’t know why the committee looking at how to expand and improve our senior center went so far off course. The committee was originally sold on the idea of renovating what we have, expanding into the space used by the police, and taking advantage of the gym, auditorium and outdoor space at Town Hall. Parking needs could have been accommodated if the committee hadn’t decided to make a center almost twice as big as makes sense or is reasonable.
Instead the proposal before Town Meeting is vastly oversized and too expensive in light of the many other expenses the town is facing. And I worry that the $26 million price tag being discussed does not reflect the true cost the town will face. The price tag seems to underestimate the expense of bulldozing five acres of woods to build the Center and pave a parking lot, as well as building a new road into Bare Cove Park, installing a traffic light at the entrance, and extending utilities. There is also the cost of maintaining and operating a separate municipal building.
I am a senior citizen and appreciate that the current center is too small. But the current proposal is an overreach that is too big and too expensive and based on questionable numbers.
Thank you for your time
Johanna Seltz Seelen
Hingham
Johanna Seltz Seelen has lived in Hingham for almost 40 years. A retired journalist, she has three children who went to Hingham schools and four grandchildren who love to visit the town.