SANFORD — A plan to create an intergenerational center with a child care component and adult day services is gaining ground, with the long-term view of opening in fall 2017.

On Thursday, folks from York County Community Action Corp. took a walk through the former Children’s Center, the home of a longtime child care program that closed in September due to financial constraints.

The building is structurally sound, but needs some renovation – new windows, a new roof, updated electric heating systems, updated restrooms and some interior redesign to accommodate new programs.

YCCAC Director Barbara Crider estimates it will take about $2 million to finance the renovations.

A planning grant from the J.T. Gorman Foundation means an architect is at the ready; YCCAC hopes to soon have drawings and a more defined estimate of costs. Then they’ll launch a plan for capital funding to get the work done.

YCCAC bought the building in October and began developing the plan, which would see each group have its own space and program but come together with the other groups periodically for activity. The plan currently calls for slots for 50 children and 25 adults.

Crider said a program for seniors who can’t be alone all day will provide services they need, along with peace of mind and respite for caregivers.

There also remains a need for affordable child care for families with children from infancy to age 5, she said.

“To me, this is a novel way to care for your community,” said Betty Graffam, who recently retired as director of YCCAC’s Head Start program, and has been hired to focus on the new center.

YCCAC is hoping the community will agree with Graffam’s assessment and come together to support the proposal.

Studies undertaken by YCCAC show there are 7,000 people in Sanford and six surrounding areas over age 65, and that nearly a third of them live alone.

With Maine’s dementia rate pegged at 1 in 8, according to YCCAC, that means about 850 people locally may be living with the disease. Nursing home and assisted living capacity locally is about 300, according to the study.

As well, since Child Care Services of York County closed the Children’s Center after 40 years, available child care has become more limited in the area.

The two-story building has entrances at both levels. Seniors’ programs would be on the ground floor, with children’s programming on the lower level.

“I’d love to see an atrium,” said Graffam, as she looked out a bank of windows to a space she envisions sporting raised bed gardens that the seniors and youngsters could plant and weed together.

Crider said even at the times when the two groups don’t interact, there is evidence that seniors who can see and hear children playing have lower blood pressure, among other benefits.

— Senior Staff Writer Tammy Wells can be contacted at 324-4444 (local call in Sanford) or 282-1535, ext. 327 or twells@journaltribune.com.