Kennedy meets with residents at Wilbraham Senior Center

Oct. 27, 2016 | Chris Goudreau
cgoudreau@thereminder.com

State Sen. Eric Lesser (left) responded to questions posed by seniors alongside Congressman Joseph Kennedy III (right) during the “Cider, Donuts, and Conversation” at the Wilbraham Senior Center on Oct. 24.
Reminder Publications photo by Chris Goudreau

WILBRAHAM – Democratic Congressman Joseph Kennedy III of Brookline answered questions and spoke to seniors alongside state Sen. Eric Lesser at the Wilbraham Senior Center on Oct. 24 during a forum called “Cider, Donuts, and Conversation.”

Lesser said he is committed to helping the town of Wilbraham find potential funds at the state level if a new senior center project were approved by residents.

“Eventually our goal is to build a new senior center in Wilbraham,” he added. “And the state will be there to support that once the town identifies a location. We’re working with the Board of Selectmen on that. We will be ready to back that up on a state level to make sure that we get funds to make it possible.”

The Senior Center Feasibility Committee voted unanimously in July to scratch its top site – 758V Main St., located behind Christ the King Lutheran Church – off its list due to the discovery that approximately 60 percent of the property contained wetlands. The committee has yet to recommend another top site.

He noted he has a seat on the Senate’s Elder Services and Affairs Committee, which he considers “one of the most important things I do.”

Lesser said the committee was able to increase the annual reimbursement rate by about 20 percent last year for Council on Aging (COA) centers in the state, including the Wilbraham COA. The increased funding allows for more programming and wellness activities at senior centers.

Bob Page, chair of the Friends of the Wilbraham Seniors, which offered to purchase the 758V Main St. property for the town, asked Lesser to cite examples of what the state could do to help with the project’s funding.

“There’s a two step process that has to happen,” Lesser responded. “The town has to find a location and that’s really an internal town decision and Town Meeting. But once that is done … then the next step of course is building it and there’s two places that the state could be helpful in that. One is with the operating expenses of the center once it’s up and running.”

He added the second way the state could help the project would be through funding for the construction of the project.  

“The state, through our bond authorizations and capital authorizations, can help with that as well,” he noted. “Potentially there’s sources of federal money as well.”

Kennedy spoke about his work in Washington D.C. as a Democrat minority in the Republican-led U.S. House of Representatives, noting that he collaborates with his colleagues across the aisle by finding areas where there is mutual agreement.

“I have to get them to decide that my bill is, not only something that they will tolerate, but that they will want,” he noted. “And so, you have to go out there and find the areas of overlap, which isn’t these days on immigration reform or tax reform or healthcare, but we have been able to do one on manufacturing. We have been able to do one on consumer protection … Finding those areas of overlap, I think, is incredibly important.”

Lesser and Kennedy also spoke in favor of creating high-speed rail from Western Massachusetts to Boston as well as offering more accessibility to the north-south rails in the Northeast.  

“As long as we don’t fight for and advocate for what we deserve, which is the same types of infrastructure investments and the same types of opportunities to connect with the economy in Boston as everybody else in the Commonwealth, we’re going to continue to not live up to our fullest economic potential here,” Lesser said.

Share this: