Longmeadow Adult Center Needs a Full Time Director

Update

An employment ad for the Longmeadow Director of Adult Services was posted earlier this week on the Town website. While the ad describes it as a "full time" position, the current position is budgeted at 30 hours/ week.  The Longmeadow Select Board should consider increasing the hours and salary of this position to be comparable to surrounding towns to show their commitment to a rapidly increasing segment of our population.  The ad states that this Director position will be under the general supervision of the town manager- hopefully, that means that this position is a participating member of the TM's staff.
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The following was submitted for posting on the LongmeadowBuzz ...
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Let your voice be heard! Be an advocate; be proactive, not reactive.

As a former member of the Longmeadow Council on Aging Board of Directors, I am very familiar with the population that is served at the Adult Center, all the services and programs provided including lunches and Meals on Wheels, and the need for a continuum of care for our senior citizens. Our senior population is the fastest growing segment of not only our town’s population but the country as a whole and its projected growth is even more substantial.

That being said, I would like to emphasize the need for a “full time” director; this is not a part time position. The Adult Center should be opened at a minimum the “typical” hours of the other town departments. The population that is served are senior citizens and not school children. Therefore the hours of 9 to 3 are unacceptable and inadequate for the population of the town. This is no longer “a mother’s hours” job.

Let me share with you the following information as a comparison:

And by the way, the town of Longmeadow is presently the ONLY town other than the little town of Hampden who does not have what would be considered a full time director and furthermore whose Council on Aging has no staff positions that are full time.

The Senior population, especially in today’s economy, needs a facility that is open to them with more hours and serviced by at least one full time staff member – which should be the new director.  May I suggest that the town hire a full time person (probably at a lesser wage than the former 25+ year employee) and expand the hours of operation at the Adult Center. That would be the ideal scenario. After all, if you are going to pay health benefits for a 30 hour employee, you might as well reap the rewards – 40 hours’ worth of work! In essence, if you replace a 30 hour person with a 40 hour person at the same or lesser wage level, you increase the productivity by 25% but you do not increase your costs. There would be absolutely no impact on the budget. That’s a win win situation. Good for the Town and good for the Seniors.

I suggest that all of us who are in favor of a Senior Center (our Adult Center) that is open 40 hours a week with a full time Director please call our Acting Town Manager, Barry DelCastilho at (413) 565-4110 and tell him so.

You can contact our Select Board at that same phone number as well. The following is a list of their email addresses:
Barry Castilho, Town Manager- bdelcastilho@longmeadow.org

Paul Santaniello, Select Board Chair, psantaniello@longmeadow.org
Mark Gold, SB member, mgold@longmeadow.org
Mark Barowsky, SB member, mbarowsky@longmeadow.org
Richard Foster, SB member, rfoster@longmeadow.org
Marie Angelides, SB member, mangelides@longmeadow.org

Let your voice be heard!  Be an advocate; be proactive, not reactive. 

Diane B. Nadeau

41 Shaker Road

Longmeadow, MA 01106