Scarborough Community Services unveiled a preliminary plan for a 5,000-square-foot senior center on Thursday that some seniors felt was too small for the programming they want.

The building as presented would cost $850,000 and includes meeting rooms, offices, a small kitchen and storage space. The programming at the building is still under consideration, and, according to Community Services Director Bruce Gullifer, it will be up to the seniors to decide what they want to do with the facility.

“What we need to look at is the building itself; does the building serve the needs you are looking for,” Gullifer said.

Seniors said they should receive some public money after supporting school bonds and paying taxes that primarily fund schools while receiving little in terms of community services and programming.

“We feel it’s our turn as far as a town project is concerned,” said Scarborough senior Ted Tibbals.

While Community Services, which operates Senior Series, is working on the plan, Gullifer told the seniors it is up to them to gather the support for the project and refine the plan.

“This is just conceptual at this point, where it goes is up to you,” he told the group.

Town Council Chairman Jeffrey Messer, who attended the meeting to assist the seniors in the planning, said he felt the facility has the best chance of receiving voter approval if it was priced under $1 million.

If the seniors wanted to create a larger facility, they could still do so and remain under that threshold. If they wanted to, they could go above the sum, although Messer could not speculate on how it would be received by the greater community.

“Keeping the project under $1 million will probably help in getting the issue past voters in November,” Messer said. “Under a million to me is an easy vote for people.”

Gullifer hopes the issue can be placed on this November’s ballot and believes it will be successful; especially considering it is an off-year election. If it is passed this year, construction could begin next spring and the facility would be done about a year later.

But in order to successfully get this issue passed the two senior groups in town – Senior Series and Senior Voices – have to form a united organization and select a couple of spokesmen to present the plan to the Town Council and gather community support.

“This is your project, this is a project you folks need to take the lead on,” Messer said.

The seniors also will have to develop a name for the new facility. Messer suggested the “senior community center.” Although seniors will primarily use the facility there would be the possibility of allowing other community organizations to use it when it was vacant.

Seniors were open to the idea, but wanted to ensure that they had first dibs on the facility.

“The consensus of the seniors I talk to is this should be a senior center first,” Tibbals said.

The proposed facility would be located next to the Town Hall on land that is currently vacant. However, there has been some other interest in the land, Gullifer said, including some interest from the Scarborough Public Library.

The land had been offered to the Cumberland County YMCA as a possible site, but was turned down because it is too small for the building the Y wants to build.

Now the YMCA is proposing to use the Bessey School site for its Scarborough facility. Currently the YMCA’s plans include renovating the Bessey School for senior housing and building the YMCA facility behind the school.

“We want to collaborate, that’s why we’re here,” said Cyrus Hagge, chairman of the Cumberland County YMCA board of directors.

Another party who is interested in the project is the Southern Maine Agency on Aging. The organization is exploring the option of transferring its Meals on Wheels kitchen to the new senior center. Currently the meals for the program are cooked in Saco where the organization pays $20,000 a year in rent. Gullifer said the new kitchen would have to be about 3,000 square feet.

A depiction of the Scarborough senior center that is now being discussed with senior organizations and the town.