What’s going on at the Maine Highlands Senior Center?

I know many of you have been watching the progress of Central Hall-The Commons renovations by the Maine Highlands Senior Center wondering what we are doing and perhaps “what the heck is taking so long!”  As some of you will have noticed, we can finally look at the building with its new contour, windows, and siding and say it is again beautiful and is a place we will be proud of.

While the interior is still not visible to the community, I assure you that you will be just as happy with the progress inside.  It is warmer this year thanks to foam insulation top to bottom and new windows.  Although the staging is still filling the second floor to enable completion of the ceiling, we anticipate finishing this phase of construction soon.

    Then, on to the plumbing, heating, elevator, kitchens, stage, flooring, etc.  Our goal is to complete the second floor Commons Event Center by next Fall and then to complete the Senior Commons and Highlands Adult Day Center on the first floor for 2017.

We are grateful to have had support from not only several private foundations, local individuals and businesses including Bangor Savings Bank and Maine Highlands Credit Union, but also Governor LePage who gave us $20,000 from his contingency fund in recognition of the important work towards our programming to enhance the lives of older adults.  Our local partners include the Town of Dover-Foxcroft, The Charlotte White Center, and Center Theatre.

Our goal from the outset has been to build community, enrich lives, and preserve memories.  The building itself is only one part of our project.  We are already actively making a difference in the community through our Fall Reduction group that is developing strategies for reducing falls in our region including the recent introduction of an open Qigong class in Center Theatre on Wednesday mornings at 8:30 a.m.  We are also proud sponsors of the first annual Window Dressers Dover-Foxcroft Community Build project to build inexpensive insulating window inserts.  The measuring team has measured for over 200 window inserts and the group is generating excellent energy and enthusiasm for the volunteer Community Build which will be the week of December 7th at the old Mr. Paperback storefront.

We welcome members of the community to participate in these fun and enriching events.

Readers are invited to offer feedback about this column and to suggest topics for future articles. You may do so by contacting Lesley Fernow at (207) 992-6822 and lmfernow@rcn.com or Meg Callaway of the Charlotte White Center at (207) 947-1410 or meg.callaway@charlottewhite.org.