NAHANT — Town Administrator Tony Barletta joined the School Committee to discuss tentative plans to relocate the Council on Aging from Town Hall to the Johnson School at the committee’s meeting Tuesday night.
Barletta described the council’s current location as extremely “dated, antiquated, and in need of updating.”
“I would probably use the word scary at times to describe it,” Barletta said about the Tiffany Room at Town Hall.
Superintendent of Schools Tony Pierantozzi said that the potential move and the renovation that would accompany it are far from definite, and Barletta wanted to involve the School Committee early in the process.
“No decisions have been made, no discussions have been had with the larger community or the Board of Selectmen,” Pierantozzi said. “This is really a preliminary view.”
The town hired Vance Architects to work with council members to determine what would be needed if the Town Hall space were to be renovated. Barletta said that because the estimate for the work was “significant,” the town began looking at other options. An estimate for renovating the school is still being formulated, and Barletta plans to eventually compare it with the estimate for renovating the Tiffany Room.
“I believe that there would need to be additional funding authorized by Town Meeting if we were ever to do anything like moving to the school or renovating the space at Town Hall,” Barletta added.
Committee Member Beth Anderson clarified that the funding for the renovation would not come from the budget of either the school district or the Council on Aging. She also expressed concern about the seniors potentially being adverse to using multi-gender or multi-generational restrooms, but Barletta responded by informing her that the restrooms at Town Hall are already inclusive.
According to Barletta, the Council on Aging serves up to 30 seniors at any given time.
Pierantozzi said that coordinating joint activities between Johnson School students and seniors could be beneficial for all of the parties involved.
“Before COVID, (Johnson School Principal) Kevin (Andrews) had really organized seniors to come in and do reading groups with kids, and everyone enjoyed them,” Pierantozzi said. “The kids enjoyed them, the staff enjoyed them, and of course the seniors enjoyed them.”
