BY RYAN O’CONNOR

As promised, Hopkinton selectmen won’t ask taxpayers to make up the $330,000 in additional costs to build the Slusser Senior Center.

According to the Slusser Center Building Committee, a capital campaign will begin this month, aimed at raising the additional funds.

The target is to raise the necessary $330,000 by mid-June, said Selectman Don Lane, chairman of the Slusser Center Building Committee.

“Basically, it has to come from private funds,” said Lane. “We expect to be sending out about 750 letters here in town to individuals asking for contributions and will be asking area businesses for their assistance.

We will also go to some national chains with a history of supporting senior activities and ask for their support and will be making individual presentations to the people and organizations that contribute.”

The Slusser Senior Center, which was primarily paid for by a $1 million gift from residents Eugene and Anne Slusser in March 2006, ran roughly $500,000 over budget when the original bid came in.

Though a series of three public meetings had the town accept the gift and establish the design and features of the building, the committee worked diligently to make cuts to bring the cost down.

Still, it became apparent that to construct the center as desired by those involved in the planning process, the project would run over the $1 million donation.

“What they really would have liked to have would cost us about 50 percent more, and going to the town, from a tax perspective, wasn’t an option, so we cut back as much as we could,” said Lane. “This will give us a fully completed and fully serviced senior center that, functionally, will be right were we want it to be.”

Moreover, Lane said current construction on the facility, which had its outer shell burned down by an arsonist in January, is proceeding at a steady pace, adding the center will likely hold its grand opening in mid-September.

Though the Slusser Center and Recreation Department became a contentious issue in the weeks leading up to and during Town Meeting, residents voted to approve the senior center’s budget, allowing officials to move forward with plans for this fall’s anticipated opening.

Resident Holly Dubreuil, who was outspoken in her opposition to the way selectmen handled the building of the center, said she is happy to hear the project won’t cost residents any more than the operating costs that the taxpayers will accrue.

“From the beginning I’ve never had anything against having a senior center, but I think it’s frustrating that maybe people weren’t totally listened to and their concerns weren’t totally heard, and I think that came out at Town Meeting,” said Dubreuil. “I think it’s just tax dollars in general that are frustrating. I hear complaints all over town, but nothing ever comes from it. It’s really not just the senior center, it’s spending all over town that needs to be controlled.”

Lane said the center is necessary because Hopkinton’s population has a large contingent of seniors, the percentage of which continues to grow.

According to Lane, demographic studies conducted by the state Department of Planning indicate that 40 percent of Hopkinton’s population will be over age 55 in 2010.

These residents, he said, need a place to congregate and participate in recreational and educational activities.

“(The projected 40 percent population of seniors) is only three years away and that’s kind of a major shift in the demographic of the town. If you think about it, the functions for seniors have pretty much been neglected over time, but when you have a population of seniors of that magnitude you have to begin to think of what their needs are and that’s what we’ve done.

“I think it’s timely because with that kind of increase there are a lot of people that could otherwise be lonely.”

In fact, the town has organized another group, the Slusser Center Programming Committee, which has been meeting for more than six months to develop activities which will be offered at the senior center.

“The goal is to provide for the recreational, entertainment, educational and well-being needs of seniors,” said Lane. “The committee is dedicated to making Hopkinton’s seniors’ lives as interesting and exciting as possible.”