letters to the editor
Reader responds to Senior Center cartoon
Dear Editor:

I was most dismayed when I saw the cartoon of the planned new Northborough Senior Center on page 3 of your most recent publication (3/7/08). The piece was not credited (except for a scrawled signature) so I cannot correct a specific reporter but I think, on review, you will find some of the "facts" erroneous.

First of all, the entirety of the land at Colburn St/ Bearfoot Rd was purchased by the town from the Fish and Game Club in 2002. It was then divided into three lots intended for use by the seniors, the trails committee and the recreation department. The proposed senior center site is NOT contaminated. The contamination is limited to an old skeet shooting range remote from the proposed senior center site. The senior site has been studied by environmental experts and for evidence of this I refer you to the Northborough town website. With the details of the project there is a letter from an environmental [lawyer] concerning the proposed site and declaring it clean.

I think it likely that your reporter got their information from one of two people in this town bitterly against this project. They have obstructed every phase of this plan and have repeatedly disseminated erroneous information.

Next, before you so casually help to scuttle a project so near and dear to most of the seniors of Northborough, please take a moment to review why so many people have worked so hard to make this happen. The current Senior Center, located on Centre Place, is too small to cater to the burgeoning number of seniors in town. There are five parking spaces, one of which is designated for the handicapped. "What goes on there?" you may ask. "Bingo," detractors will say. In fact, many programs essential to keeping seniors healthy and in their own homes, such as Meals on Wheels, flu clinic, blood pressure screening, exercise programs, low vision groups are all conducted on a shoestring budget. And yes, they do play bingo.

Lastly, and I urge anyone who reads this to think about this, Northborough is a nice town in which to live and it has a stellar school system. How do you think it got this way? Who has been voting right along to make it this way? The seniors are proud of their town too.
Sincerely yours,
Maggie Harling
Editor's note: We chose the cartoon concept in our March 7 issue based on the fact that areas within the former site of the Fish & Game Club have been contaminated with lead and arsenic. That the site was later divided into three parcels, leaving just one contaminated parcel does not undermine our stand that 119 Colburn Street has an environmental clean-up problem.

As stated in part in a letter from attorney Mark R. Reich to Assistant Town Administrator John Coderre dated Jan. 16, 2007: "In my opinion, the town is obligated to manage the disposal site in accordance with those [DEP] regulations, and to take such steps as are necessary to ensure that the existing release and its remediation do not impact the uncontaminated portion of the property … I recommend that the town properly monitor the property to ensure that no contamination migrates onto the uncontaminated portion of the property."

Surely, no monitoring would be needed if contamination of the Senior Center parcel were not possible.

That Town Meeting voters will soon consider both the clean-up cost for one parcel and the cost to build a new Senior Center on an adjacent parcel was the target of the cartoon.

We regret that you misconstrued our cartoon as lack of support for a new Senior Center for the very deserving senior population in Northborough.
Signed,
Barbara Polan
Managing Editor