The unusual spring and summer weather has its positive and negative aspects. On the downside, the abundance of rain has left us completely waterlogged. Gardens are stunted from the lack of heat and sun and the water table is reaching the saturation point. Mold, mushrooms, and weeds threaten to take over, while vegetable plants struggle for survival. On the upside, the extra rain has kept temperatures down and municipal water supplies up.
The recent return of the summer heat and the accompanying high humidity has reminded us that it is, indeed, summer in New England. Even in air conditioned buildings the humidity seeps in, making offices go from freezing to stuffy, workouts at the gym even harder, and sleeping at night less comfortable.
And the humidity is once again wreaking havoc with the Norwood Senior Center floor.
The floor in the recently expanded senior center is bubbling up in places and could conceivably trip people who meet there and dance on its buckling surface. The particular type of flooring used has a cushioned spongy layer designed to lessen impact on the seniors’ joints, but it has been problematic since it was installed. The same problem occurred last year when the center’s air conditioning was down for a few days.
While town officials explore various ways to fix the problem, the Finance Commission has unanimously endorsed replacing, not repairing, the floor. Chairman Allan Howard said that the commission suggests making money available from the town’s reserve fund to replace the defective floor immediately.
“We should just bite the bullet, admit there was an error in putting that type of floor down, and fix it now before somebody gets hurt,” said Howard. It is not known how much replacement would cost, but Howard said he is trying to get some estimates from Town Hall.
“They’ve got two giant dehumidifiers and they run the AC around the clock, and for us to be spending money to keep that building at 69 degrees over the weekends and 24/7 is ludicrous,” Howard said.
The constantly running air conditioning is also a problem for the seniors who use the center.
“Seniors have to wear sweaters and coats to play bingo,” said senior center advocate Bill McCoy in a recent letter to the editor. “The senior dance in July had no air conditioning and the temperature went to 80 degrees for three hours. The floor started to buckle at our June dance on June 17, and here we are in August. Now the air conditioning is being run for 24 hours. That isn’t the answer.”
The FinCom understands that the defective floor presents a serious safety issue for those who use the senior center and, to their credit, are ready to act immediately to remedy the situation. While money can be made available from the reserve fund, it may also be a possible application for the surplus funds that the School Committee recently voted to return to the town. The $86,000 in unused funds was not discovered until school administrators closed out the FY ‘09 books.
Superintendent John Moretti said that returning the money was a way to thank the FinCom for funding the schools’ snow and ice removal deficit at the Special Town Meeting in May and is meant as a good faith gesture.
That good faith gesture is certainly appreciated by the town. Surely there are a number of ways that those funds could be applied during these hard times. Replacing the floor at the senior center should be given priority, however, not only for safety and liability reasons, but also because the town’s seniors should have full use of the facility that they worked so hard to have built.
Norwood resident Candace Leary’s Midpoints column appears Mondays in the Transcript.
