Seniors eagerly await new community/senior center

LOWER MAKEFIELD – Frank Fazzalore said after 16 years of discussion, it is about time a community/senior center is built here.

It was music to his ears when the board of supervisors selected a site near the township complex for the proposed center at its Sept. 19 meeting. The vote was unanimous.

Fazzalore, a longtime advocate of a senior center in the township, is more than ready to watch the shovel hit the ground.

“I would like to see the ground broken tomorrow and the dedication by the fall of 2013,” he said.

He is confident that the current board of supervisors will see the project quickly to fruition.

The board picked the township-owned Samost Tract, which is located near the intersection of Oxford Valley and Edgewood roads

The land is a partially-wooded 25-acre site. Several softball and baseball fields, as well as a water tower, are on the land. It sits across the road from the municipal building, library and pool.

Fazzalore served as a member of the Lower Makefield Board of Supervisors for years and participated in discussions about the need for a senior center, which was a controversial subject at the time.

He has been a board member of the Lower Makefield Seniors group and said it is a shame that the senior citizens of the town- ship have had to meet for so many years in the meeting room at the township building.

“I want to stress that the project move forward -- that it doesn’t lay around for two years,” he said. “That we push forward to a conclusion.

“I just don’t want to see any delays,” Fazzalore said.

The people of the township, he said, should have the center for all organizations to use.

Describing Lower Makefield as a wealthy bedroom community, Fazzalore said there should have been a senior center all along.

Fazzalore said he left the board disillusioned about the possibility of a senior center. “Now we’re closer than we have ever been,” he said. “I hope we’re very successful.”

Rep. Steve Santarsiero (D-31) acquired a $1-million state redevelopment grant last year for a senior center in the township.

Under the terms of the grant, Lower Makefield is required to put up at least $1-million in matching funds to build the center within the next five years.

One of the conditions of the grant is that it should be used by all groups.

Fazzalore recalled how there were two referendums about whether or not a senior center should be built. They both were defeated.

“One was for $5 million,” he said. “One was for almost $10 million. They were two years apart.

“The second one was about 10 years

ago,” he said. “It was a massive project.” The project called for a center that would serve senior citizens as well as the Bucks County Performing Arts organization.

The project would have cost “too many millions,” according to Fazzalore.

The idea of a senior center has been in limbo until the township got the grant from the state. “It was just hanging out there,” Fazzalore said.

“It feels like we made the first step,” he said.

“It means an awful lot to the community,” Fazzalore said. “Lower Makefield is one of the finest in the state.” No matter where he has lived, he has always liked Lower Makefield the best.

“On the other hand, one part of our population has been ignored,” he said. “Seniors have a right as much as the youths. They need a place where they can do what they can’t do at the township building -- not just play cards.”

Fazzalore said the seniors need a big room for their activities. “They do all kinds of stuff,” he said. “There’s a lot of physical training.”

The room has to be long enough so card tables can remain up. Currently, tables have to be taken down because the room is held for meetings.

“It would be a lot more convenient,” he said.

An office is needed, according to Fazzalore, as well as a computer room and a crafts room.

Fazzalore stressed that the issue did not just pop up recently. There was a committee that considered sites.

Among them was the 2.87-acre Veterans Square site on Edgewood Road near Mirror Lake Road. Fazzalore opposed that as the location because he thought the park should be a peaceful place.

Last year, the supervisors appointed a special site-selection committee to look at a number of possible locations on township-owned land.

In February, the committee chose four sites, but could not reach a consensus on which one should top the list.

Besides the Samost Tract, the three other choices wereW the barn area on the 216-acre Patterson Farm on Mirror Lake Road, the 34-acre Snipes parcel at nuarry and Dolington roads and Veterans Square Park in Edgewood Village.