Hopkinton News : slusser center fire

Hopkinton's Slusser Center begins to feel like home

Bow Editor — Wed, 26 Mar 2008 21:17:00 GMT

Having risen from the ashes of a blatant arson fire set early last year, the Slusser Senior Center in Hopkinton is now almost complete.

“We anticipate that the downstairs will be open in mid- April,” said Justin La Vigne, the town’s recreation director.

The new center’s upper floor has been open for a few months, providing a venue for senior dinners, tea parties, dance classes, knitting groups and other gatherings.

The recent arrival of an elevator marked the final chapter of the construction project. Once it’s installed, the building will be fully accessible, opening up a dedicated fitness room, a game room, a conference room and space for the Hopkinton Food Pantry in the lower level.

When the building is finished, it will be a place for seniors and town groups to socialize and exercise, and a showcase for the goodwill and community spirit that exists in Hopkinton.

“Everything you see in this building is donated,” LaVigne said.

As you enter the second floor of the senior center through the main entrance, it’s hard to miss the majestic wood and marble fireplace in the living room. Artist Byron Carr of Contoocook donated the wood and marble for the fireplace. Danny Coen helped cut the marble for the inlays and Merle Dustin donated the fireplace. Office chairs will provide temporary furnishings in the living room until later this month, when a $15,000 donation from the Hopkinton Women’s Club will help adorn the room with cozy couches, chairs and loveseats.

“We have some gentlemen who come in and play cards in here every once in a while,” La Vigne said. “It’s just a nice place to gather and socialize.”

Off to the left is the Dial-A-Ride office, where seniors can request and schedule transportation for grocery shopping, doctor appointments or other errands.

Anne Slusser, who along with her husband, Eugene, donated $1 million for the construction of the center, started the Dial- A-Ride program in Hopkinton some 30 years ago, La Vigne said.

Beyond the living room, a fully equipped kitchen, fit for feeding a crowd of 80, connects to an airy multipurpose room with windows on three sides.

Monday morning, Hopkinton native Mary Wilkens was filling in as the teacher of the beginners line dancing class in the multi-purpose room.

“I’ve signed up for every class they have here,” Wilkens said, listing off activities like chair yoga, paper cutting, card making, needlework and aerobics. She also attends the weekly senior dinners, and the tea parties.

“I absolutely love the tea parties,” she said. “We get all fancied up with our gloves up to here and our skirts and dresses. We look great.”

Outside the multi-purpose room, a deck provides a view of the mountains in the distance.

“I guess that’s why they picked this location,” LaVigne said. “Gene Slusser really wanted the dining room to face that way.”

The center wouldn’t have been possible if it weren’t for the original $1 million gift the Slussers gave the town in the spring 2006. Combined with an additional $400,000 in private donations, the money paid for the construction of the senior center, without using taxpayer dollars, though town funds will pay for its operation.

Don Lane, who had served as selectman at the time, led the committee that designed the building and oversaw its construction — twice.

On Jan. 15, 2007, fire was intentionally set to the then half- built center, leaving behind only the foundation and a spraypainted message that read, “Not with my tax $.”

“I think they were motivated by the enormous amount of misinformation that was being put out at the time” about the funding for the center, Lane said.

The town’s insurance policy covered the damages and construction pushed onward. No arrests have been made, and the investigation into the fire remains open, Interim Town Administrator Robert Veloski said, and evidence has been sent to the Federal Bureau of Investigation for analysis.

“I think the police know who did it, they just don’t have enough proof yet,” Lane said.

Meanwhile, La Vigne is setting up a seven-member Senior Recreation Committee to advise him on the operation and programs, which will expand once the first floor opens.

Lane said the senior center adds new social and cultural dimensions to the town of Hopkinton, where more than a third of the population is at least 50 years old.

“After just a few months, it’s already a very integral part of our whole social fabric here in Hopkinton and will only become more so as time goes by,” he said.

Center feud - Residents want to look at options before rebuilding senior center

Bow Editor — Thu, 25 Jan 2007 16:23:00 GMT

BY RYAN O’CONNOR

Hopkinton selectmen have vowed to rebuild the Slusser Senior Center that was destroyed by arson Jan. 15 – only four months before it was scheduled to open.

But some residents aren’t supportive of the initiative to rebuild.

Though the primary concern of many Hopkinton taxpayers and town officials is to see the Slusser Senior Center rebuilt, resident Holly Dubreuil would like selectmen to explore their roles in the reason it was burned down in the first place.

Dubreuil said she in no way supports arson, but she understands why some people are upset with the potential cost of the building.

“I definitely feel that the number one priority should be finding the arsonist, but I also feel they need to find out what the underlying issues are that caused it and why the taxpayers are so angry,” she said. “I really feel that through my experience with selectmen, that many people are feeling they aren’t being heard.”

Dubreuil said after the town voted down a $2.85 million community center in 2005 and a $450,000 petitioned warrant article for a senior center last year, she expected selectmen to follow through with their promise to bring a new plan for a senior center forward at the 2007 Town Meeting.

But that was before Eugene and Anne Slusser donated $1 million to fund the project at Houston Fields, said Selectman Don Lane.

“The gift was given by the Slussers with two conditions – one, that it be used to build a senior center and that its construction commence immediately,” said Lane. “The conditions are clear. It’s not a very convoluted thing. We signed an agreement with the Slussers to do exactly what we’re doing.”

Once the $1 million offer was made by the Slussers, said Lane, the town went to the state to determine the proper process for accepting the gift. The town held a public meeting, as required by state regulations and those residents who showed up agreed to accept the gift and use it to build a senior center.

“We did everything legally,” Lane said. “If people had these concerns, they should have expressed them back in May. And if we heard enough of these concerns, then things may have been done differently.”

The town then held two well attended public meetings in July and August to ask residents what they wanted in the senior center. Still, Dubreuil said to be fully upfront, selectmen should have waited until Town Meeting.

“I’m not on the board that’s building it and I personally have nothing against a senior center,” she said. “(The Slusser’s gift) is amazing and it’s great that someone would donate the million dollars, but I feel if it had been brought up at a regular Town Meeting the result may have been different.”

As far as operating cost of the new senior center is concerned, Lane said selectmen anticipate spending only $16,500 between operating costs at Columbia Hall and the Slusser Center over the next year, which could be even less given the impact of the fire.

Before the Community Center Inc. vacated Columbia Hall in August, the town sent the nonprofit organization $15,000 a year to use the building for recreational and senior activities. Once the new senior center opens, Lane said the town will only transfer employees, including the town recreation and human services directors, rather than hiring additional staff.

Moreover, the town will decide whether Columbia Hall should be maintained by the town or sold, which could bring additional money to the town and potentially be used to offset taxes.

The Slusser Center will primarily be used for senior activities, although, Lane said, the plan is still to use the building for town recreation activities. Operating costs for a full year at the Slusser Senior Center are projected at $28,000 to $33,000, but Lane is quick to point out that is no surprise.

“We’ve been very upfront that the money we received was designed for building a senior center, and the town would have to bear the operating costs,” said Lane. “If you look at the value of receiving the million dollars and determine what it would cost if you bonded it, it would probably cost a heck of a lot, somewhere around $120,000 a year for 15 years. A lot more than the operating costs, which would still be there on top of the bond.”

To alleviate future tax burden, selectmen adopted an endowment similar to the library foundation that is used to buy books. Lane said it will take time, but once a strong enough foundation is set, the town will be able to offset operating costs with earned interest.

Though the bid to build the senior center came in $450,000 more than the $1 million donation, Lane said there have been changes made to bring the senior center in line with projection.

Selectmen will not ask for the additional money through taxes, but rather the town is launching a capital campaign to make up the current $300,000 difference, though supplies are being donated and further cuts are being made to lower that amount, said Lane.

To accept and allocate the additional money, the town will have to call another public meeting and get residents approval. Resident Scott Flood doesn’t think that is fair to residents.

“What kind of choice does that give the town?” said Flood. “You’ve already built the building and if the town doesn’t approve it then the building just falls into disrepair.”

Flood also said if selectmen weren’t in a rush to build the senior center, they could have sold the red barn that used to stand where the foundation for the burnt building now sits, rather than demolishing the antique structure.

Selectmen asked the town for permission to sell the barn in 2005, but tabled the discussion and never resolved the issue.

“If the selectmen felt they needed town approval to sell the barn back in 2005, how is it possible that selectmen do not need town approval to demolish the barn in 2006?” said Flood in an October memorandum sent to selectmen. “Could the barn have been sold and removed, thereby providing further revenue for the town? Clearly, the selectmen thought it was possible back in March of 2005. Why then throw the potential revenue away in 2006?”

Flood added that the barn could have also been used for a municipal purpose.

Lane, however, said selectmen tried to sell the structure and received no legitimate offers. In fact, Lane said it would have cost the town a lot more to move the structure, which had minimal to no value. Instead, the town found someone who would demolish the building and take it at no cost, thus saving the town a significant amount of money, said Lane.

(Editor’s note: View a video of the Jan. 15 fire that destroyed the Slusser Senior Center by clicking here The video was provided to The Bow Times by Hopkinton resident Vernon Miller.)

Arson destroys senior center

Bow Editor — Thu, 18 Jan 2007 19:24:00 GMT

BY RYAN O’CONNOR

HOPKINTON – A fire that destroyed the Slusser Senior Center has been ruled arson. On Monday, Jan. 15, firefighters were called to the scene to find the building shell in flames. On Wednesday, Jan. 17, Hopkinton Deputy Fire Chief John Pianka confirmed arson-detecting dogs found evidence of a petroleum-based product, which is believed to have ignited the fire.

View video of fire.

Resident Vernon Miller was watching TV shortly after 10:30 p.m. Monday, when he heard the sound of an explosion. Shortly after, he heard the fire siren from the Pine Street station, and then a fire engine turn into Houston Fields across the road from his home. He walked outside where he saw bright orange flames emanating from the building site of the Slusser Senior Center.

“Basically, I grabbed the video camera and headed outside and, at that point, the building was in full blaze. The flames were pretty impressive, unfortunately,” said Miller. “It was really tragic because you can replace the wood, but (the town and seniors) had made a lot of headway on that building with the good weather, and now it’s all gone. It’s just a bunch of burning wood until you think about how many people that fire affected.”

“It could have been the roof collapsing,” said Mike Stark, of the New Hampshire Fire Marshal’s office, referring to the loud noise residents heard. “At that time of night any loud noise would sound like an explosion.”

When firefighters arrived shortly after 11 p.m. on Monday, Jan. 15, the structure was fully engulfed in flames, and across the side of a nearby trailer were the words “Not on my tax $,” spray painted in red.

The two-alarm fire took about three hours to put out, said Pianka.

Even during a preliminary investigation, the Hopkinton Fire Department and Stark suspected the blaze was intentionally set.

Selectman Don Lane said the graffiti found at the scene was the first clue it was arson.

“I’m not an expert, but I know that sign wasn’t there before,” he said. “I think it’s a very hateful thing to do, but that doesn’t mean we can’t take a step back and then move forward,” Lane said. “It’s certainly a funny way to vote.”

Selectmen Chairman Louise Carr said whoever burned the building down is misinformed.

“I don’t know how we can change the process. We’re trying to be as open in this process as absolutely possible,” she said. “No tax money has gone into that structure at all. Yes, there will be some operating costs, but we’ve established an endowment to pay for that.”

Moreover, Lane said operating costs will be minor and most likely less than what the town is currently paying to operate Columbia Hall.

“If you think about the fact that the other way to build a million dollar building is through a bond by the taxpayers, it would take us 30 years for the cost of this building to approach this amazing gift,” said Lane, of the $1 million donation from residents Eugene and Anne Slusser to build the senior center.

“It’s very discouraging. It’s not what I think of Hopkinton,” Carr said.

Though the structure is destroyed, the foundation is still in place and Eugene Slusser is taking an optimistic approach.

“It doesn’t bother me at all because we’re going to rebuild and still be in business, so it’s just a little setback in time, that’s all,” he said.

The senior center was preparing for a May opening and it is too soon to set a new date, but the insurance companies have been contacted and preparations are being made to rebuild, Lane said.

According to Robert Mattes, the town’s recreation director and coordinator of senior activities, his department will not skip a beat.

“It means that we don’t move into the new senior center in May and that we still run our programs through (Columbia Hall). It’s really not going to affect us at all,” said Mattes. “We’re still going to have fun. We’re just not going to do it in the Slusser Center as soon as we expected.”

Still, Mattes sees a silver lining. “It’s unfortunate, but I think this is a strong town and we can make it through this, no problem,” said Mattes. “I hope the town rallies together and supports the seniors here because they deserve this center and they deserve to get it back, even more so now than before. It was a great thing, so let’s continue that and not give up on the seniors.”

Hopkinton currently has roughly 1,800 senior citizens and Lane said an anticipated 39 percent of the town’ population, or approximately 2,400 people, will be over 60 years of age by 2010.

Lane said the town has already decided to organize a fund to help rebuild the center, though no further information was available at press time. Carr is encouraging anyone with information to contact the proper authorities.

“If anyone has seen anything suspicious, a strange car or anything out of the ordinary, no matter how trivial it may seem, please call the police or the New Hampshire Crimeline,” she said.

Those with information can call Hopkinton Police at 746- 5151 or the Concord Regional Crimeline at 226-3100.

“The message will be delivered by the police,” said Lane.