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Dear Editor,
Reading is a fabulous community to live in. One of the key things that we pride ourselves on is building and leveraging every asset for maximum value. This has been described as the ability to squeeze $1.25 out of every $1.00 we spend. Through caring and qualified volunteers serving on committees, responsible forward-thinking planning, and talented staff, we have done a tremendous job taking care of our residents responsibly.
As a former 2-term Select Board Member and 9-year Finance Committee member, I believe we as a community have two priorities and opportunities in front of us today: the Reading Center for Active Living (RECAL) and the Killam School Project. The “AND” in all caps is for emphasis—as this is exactly the opportunity in front of us. I support both projects as they are what we need, and they represent Reading’s approach to responsible projects and services for our residents.
The READING CENTER FOR ACTIVE LIVING, RECAL, is a need that will focus primarily on the age 60+ element of our community, which now stands at almost 30% of our residents. Today, we can’t meet the needs of our age 60+ residents—of which I am one. The facilities at the Pleasant Street Center are inadequate in space, accessibility, and programming (due to lack of space), and we face issues of water and odor. There is no bathroom on the main floor, among other structural limitations.
The opportunity with RECAL is to provide a welcoming, social space to serve primarily the age 60+ members of our community with both dedicated and shared spaces. It will also provide broader community benefits, including social space, a gym, and an indoor walking track that can be programmed for age 60+ and the entire community. RECAL will house Elder Services, Veterans Service, and Recreation under one roof. Their ability to serve the age 60+ segment of the community—and the entire community—will be vastly improved. There will also be opportunities to rent out space when not being used for community programming, for special events, leagues, and other organized uses.
Why not just a senior center? Folks who no longer have kids in the schools but choose to stay in Reading are the fastest-growing element of our 60+ population. Boomers who will be considering retirement no longer have the social network of their kids and schools. But they/we have social as well as physical needs.
The Select Board formed a volunteer committee—the Reading Center for Active Living Committee (RECALC, with a C added to the end for committee)—which benchmarked many other communities around us to understand best practices. What we learned is that having active physical programming space as well as social space is what is needed.
Centers for Active Living are built for today and for the future, and they meet both social and physical needs. Many communities have approved and built these CALs, and they have found that participation levels at these centers have gone up 80–170% in many cases. CALs provide what is needed to serve the 60+ community and the entire community. Another example of squeezing $1.25 out of every $1.00 and providing the Reading community with badly needed additional recreational and social resources.
Our greatest strength as a community is serving our residents with what they/we need. RECAL and the Killam Project deliver on this. No one likes to pay more in taxes. We face regular Prop 2½ overrides, economic uncertainty, and the reality that we need to maintain ($) our facilities. But RECAL and Killam are the two key priorities for our community. The Select Board and the Town Manager have reiterated this as well. It is now up to Town Meeting—and then the voters—to make this happen.
I encourage you to take 10 minutes to learn more about RECAL by going to www.readingma.gov/recal.
Respectfully,
Mark Dockser
Beaver Road
Town Meeting Member, Precinct 1
