By MAUREEN DOHERTY
NORTH READING — A standing-room only crowd of at least 75 people attended Monday’s Select Board meeting in a show of support for the immediate and pressing needs of the town’s senior citizens.
The seven-member Council on Aging, led by Chair Valerie Schiavone, and Senior Center Director Kim Manzelli reported to the board that the town was denied the state grant of $9,800 for the upcoming fiscal year needed to fund rental expenses one day per week year round at their satellite facility, Aldersgate Church. The loss of the funds will also mean a reduction in outreach to the older adult community and to place on hold a pilot program that was designed to reduce social isolation for homebound residents, and reduce plans for intergenerational activities.
The town had received this grant for the past two years and the arrangement has worked out well, enabling the Senior Center to not only serve lunch to more seniors due to the church have a commercial kitchen and more room to set up tables, but also accommodate more special programs, such as entertainers with room for dancing, or special speakers, and holiday parties. The facility is used about two days per week during the school year and one day per week in the summer.
Most recently, the summer BBQ with entertainment and raffles to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the town’s partnership with Mystic Valley Elder Services was held at Aldersgate, for example. The cost of the BBQ was funded by a gift accepted by the Select Board Monday night.
Schiavone said, “It should be noted that the senior center budget is one-half of one percent of the town budget while the 60+ population is over one quarter of town’s population and will be 35% by 2030.” She added that the COA’s “immediate ask” from the town is to find the $9,800 in the town budget to support this expense in FY26.
Select Board Chairman Stephen O’Leary said, “This is a substantial hit,” adding that the loss of the grant was not known to anyone prior to the annual Town Meeting on June 9.
Manzelli noted that she was notified on June 24 that the town would not be getting the grant for FY26, which began on July 1.
The COA report was projected onto the screen in the Select Board’s room while Schiavone skimmed through the highlights. With a town population of 16,290, a total of 4,714 residents are age 60 or older (29%) and this number is projected to increase to 35% of the town’s population in less than five years (2030) as more residents age in place and the ninth and final building in Martins Landing, a 55+ complex, is completed.
Additionally, the Senior Center has gained 816 new participants since 2022, including 103 in the first half of 2025. The active number of participants at the Senior Center more than doubled between 2022 (379) and 2024 (799).
To accommodate these increasing numbers, their “footprint across town” continues to grow as they are currently utilizing the first floor of the Third Meeting House on the Town Common, built in 1829. It’s considered ADA-compliant due to a grandfathered status but not current requirements. Its existing ramp is going to be re-engineered, for example, and will be put out to bid shortly. Since they are limited to only using the first floor (no elevator access to the second floor) only one program at a time can be run which requires the staff to constantly rearrange the tables and chairs and there isn’t any space for private discussions when speaking with seniors about personal matters such as health, insurance, financial or housing needs, for example. The parking lot is also difficult for many seniors to use given its location on the top of the hill.
In addition to using the Aldersgate Church, the Senior Center also uses space for exercise classes at the Masonic Lodge, thanks to an anonymous donor, plus the Town Hall gym on a seasonal basis (no AC in summer) and Room 14. Temporary space for two other classes has been set up in the library (caregiver support group and meditation class series).
But Schiavone noted that all of these sites have their disadvantages as well. It is difficult for the limited staff to oversee four different sites; currently, the Masonic Lodge is undergoing a major water main repair and is unavailable for the next three or so weeks; and the 30+ year-old elevator at the Flint Memorial Library has been out of service for several weeks, making it difficult, if not impossible for some patrons to enter the building other than the Activity Room on the ground floor. (Later in the meeting Town Administrator Michael Gilleberto noted that the estimate to repair the library’s elevator is in excess of $100,000. It is another project that will be put out to bid.)
Because the Senior Center provides free in-town rides to its facilities and events in its vans, having multiple sites makes coordinating transportation more of a challenge. For example, at press time Senior Center Director Kim Manzelli confirmed that for the next three weeks two different exercise classes normally held at the Masonic Lodge will be moved to Room 14 at Town Hall but since parking is tight during the day at Town Hall the seniors will park at Rita Mullin Field on Lowell Road and the senior van will shuttle them to Town Hall.
Joining Shiavone at the meeting were COA members Lisa Ditrapano, RN; Raphael Shapiro, MD; Linda Kor, Barbara Campbell, Maxine MacPherson and Maria Damiano. Shapiro, a retired surgeon who has been a member of the COA for two years, said he is “blown away by what they do with very little resources… we need this committee.”
One by one seniors stepped to the mic to advocate for the needs of the seniors, with many giving personal accounts of how these services have greatly enhanced the quality of their lives, physically, socially and emotionally and others noting that even if a program is not needed by them personally, it fulfills a great need for someone else in town. The Senior Center staff also arranges rides to medical appointments for seniors, mainly through volunteers when they need to go out of town. One woman said that currently she and her husband cannot drive themselves to their medical appointments and require rides up to 10 times per week. They are so thankful to have the assistance provided by the Senior Center.
O’Leary offered a shout out for the work of the Council on Aging. “It all takes money and we have a supportive community,” he said. “You have done a fantastic job with the outreach.”
Asked if they’ve reached a point where programs will “cease” due to the loss of this $9,800 grant, Manzelli said, “We have some funding through the Friends group. We can keep things level funded through Dec. 9.”
One option would be to seek a “reserve fund transfer” from the Finance Committee if the need was unforeseen, O’Leary said. The library elevator would be a candidate for such funding, he said. Other options are going to October Town Meeting.
Select Board member Vincenzo Stuto said, “We need a Senior Center/Intergenerational Center. I think we can get it done but it needs to be sold to the greater community because it will need a tax increase. There is one guarantee: we will all get old. Pay it forward to yourself…We have to start being a little honest” because investing in a new building would “solve a lot of issues.” These would include adding needed space, being ADA-compliant and being equipped with AC, he said.
The problem with renovating an old building like the current Senior Center, Stuto said, is “if you start touching certain things, you have to fix everything.” He added that in North Reading, every 10-step process gets stuck at step 3 because once it involves raising taxes “no one wants to talk about it anymore.”
O’Leary said, “we need to solve a short term problem with an eye toward future.”
COA member Maxine MacPherson commented that the budget for seniors has remained “pretty much the same” despite the steep increase in needed services for a growing population. “At the rate you guys are going it is not going to happen to my lifetime… you need to fund us!” she said.