BANGOR, Maine — This week’s announcement that the Hammond Street Senior Center will close until further notice has local seniors searching for other recreational opportunities and wondering how they’ll stay in touch with the friends they’ve made there.
“It’s about the people,” said member Joel Gottlieb, a retired Bangor business owner. “I mean, I have former neighbors who have moved who I always talk with there, and I won’t see them anymore until the new center opens.”
Gottlieb visits the center two to three times each week, taking advantage of yoga classes and monthly movie nights. In addition to those program, his wife, Jane, regularly uses the facility’s gym and attends an African drumming class.
“The hard part about this is we have all made acquaintances and friends we will not see again, because this is where we meet,” said member Roberta Lynch, who visits the center five times a week.
Saying she understands the center’s 1911 building is too expensive, Lynch still questioned why the local community appears unable to support a center for senior citizens.
“I just think we ought to make a little more noise and be aware of what we do not have and should have,” she said.
Since the announcement, Lynch and a friend have signed up for a two-days-a-week exercise class in Brewer, but she fears it will not provide the same social outlet.
“Being able to exercise is one thing, but this is about the camaraderie between older people,” she said.
Center officials announced Wednesday they will close their doors at month’s end in a bid to reduce costs as they attempt to sell the building and relocate to a less expensive location with more on-site parking.
According to Director Kathy Bernier, the move comes as the center pushes to dedicate more funding to programming and less to facilities. She said the center will remain closed until the building sells, but she did not know when that would be.
A new location for the senior center has not been selected yet. The current facility boasts amenities such as a library, a rooftop garden, sewing and art rooms, a computer room and spaces for exercise, cards, crafts, yoga, movies and billiards.
In an email to the center’s roughly 500 active members, Bernier said revenue from donations, sponsorships, grants and municipal participation had fallen “far short from budgeted amounts” and “severely impacted the financial standing of the senior center.”
The senior center was founded in 1999 by John and Elaine Couri of Ridgefield, Connecticut. They operated it through their charitable foundation known as the Couri Foundation, investing more than $3 million to improve the facility.
In 2013, they transferred ownership of the 2 Hammond St. property and all of its assets to Hammond Street Senior Center Inc., a newly established and locally controlled nonprofit.
Tax records show the center’s income fell dramatically between 2011 and 2013 — the latest year available — plunging 29 percent from $504,964 to $360,039. During that time period, charitable contributions fell 41 percent from $395,004 to $233,525.
In response to the announced closure, Bangor Councilor David Nealley called for increased cooperation between the city’s Parks and Recreation Department and the senior center.
Nealley pushed earlier this year to increase the city’s funding for the center from $9,000 to $30,000, but the council did not include the extra funding in its final budget.
A group of volunteers will relocate the senior center’s rooftop raised garden to the Bangor Community Garden on Oct. 19.
Follow Evan Belanger on Twitter at @evanbelanger.