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Tom Craven, a 50 Plus Club member, spoke during the Sept. 18 Community Center meeting in favor of keeping the facility open, citing the accessibility of the center and array of programs that it provides for seniors in Biddeford. ABIGAIAL WORTHING/Biddeford-Saco-OOB Courier
BIDDEFORD — For more than 100 years, the J. Richard Martin Community Center, it all its many forms, has been an important part of the Biddeford community.
In the past, it was a high school and a junior high school and it was reincarnated as community center. Since it was built in 1888, it has been a fixture on Alfred Street, walking distance to the downtown area, for young and old alike.
The years have taken a told on the building, which needs an estimated $5 million in repairs. A city committee is taking input from the public to decide the fate of the center.
On Sept. 18, the Community Center Ad Hoc Committee hosted a public hearing, allowing tenants of the center and community members to present their thoughts on the center.
The committee, lead by Ward 5 Councilor Victoria Foley, will use information garnered from the meeting to help formulate a recommendation to present to the City Council.
Following the failure of one of the building’s boilers in August 2017, there was debate regarding the future of the center during an Oct. 17, 2017, City Council meeting. At that time, councilors approved spending $40,000 for e short-term boiler fix.
They also discussed whether the building, more than a century old, is worth the cost to fix the myriad of problems detailed in a December 2005 study conducted by Oak Park Associates. Councilors approved formation of the ad hoc committee in January.
One of the community center tenants is the Biddeford 50 Plus Club. Club President Stephanie Ruhl said the center is important to the club and its member — she came equipped with a petition signed by 130 club members attesting to that.
“For 24 years, this has been the place senior citizens can call home,” Ruhl said. “It is centrally located, so our members can walk or drive here easily, and there’s adequate free parking, We are hoping that you will make repairs instead of displace us.”
Seniors from the 50 Plus Club spoke about the classes and social opportunities they enjoy, with a plethora of activities such as mahjong and pickleball.
“When I first moved here with my daughter, I didn’t know anyone, and she suggested I come down here,” said 50 Plus Club member Shirley Bates. “Now I’ve met so many people.”
“I think we need to preserve what we have,” said club member and tai chi enthusiast Tom Craven. “It will be a better investment in the long run.”
There are roughly 25 organizations that share the center, which functions on $211,193 in support from the city annually, as well as rental fees and facility fees and revenue from community members who rent space for events, which varies from year to year. Those who spoke during the meeting on behalf of their organizations cited contributions to the building over the years. For example, La Kermesse Franco Americaine paid $25,000 toward the elevator in 1996 to obtain an occupancy permit and Biddeford Adult Education has contributed $54,000 in renovated rooms and floors within its space.
Former city mayor, gubernatorial candidate and current Biddeford resident Donna Dion said she thinks the building could be saved if the community worked together to find a solution. Everyone in Biddeford has a history with the building, she said, be it as a student or community member. Dion, who was involved in the decision to open the building as a community center, also encouraged those gathered that the space should be used to the fullest extent to provide the most revenue.
“We need to come together as a community because the city can’t afford it. This building can’t have deteriorated to the point that we need to walk away. We need a full fledged plan,” Dion said. “It’s important to me. It was then and it is now.”
Many of those attending the meeting were representatives and students from Biddeford Adult Education, and many of them  said although they  never speak in public they were moved in the moment by their love for the center.
Biddeford Adult Education offers classes at the building six days a week. Representatives of the center said enrollment in English as a Second Language courses is up 26 percent, and the number of those working on their diploma has increased from 1,300 to 1,500. In addition, the center has begun offering family literacy courses.
“There’s a reason this is called a ‘community’ center,” said Adult Education Director Paulette Bonneau.
“We have 18 active families in the literacy program right now, and they will push carriages and walk in rain and storms to be here,” said Family Literacy Coordinator Julie Berube.
Students from the program were also there to support the keeping the center and a few spoke about the ways the program, and the building, has touched their lives.
Adult Ed student Tina Bruns, a mother of eight who will graduate this year, along with her daughter, from the CNA program, said she never though she’d have the opportunity to get such an education.
“These people are my family and it has changed my life,” Bruns said.
Adult Ed instructor Sam Smithwick told a story of a newcomer to Biddeford who took classes with the program, and in six months was gainfully employed in a full time position. “That’s the kind of thing that can happen here,” Smithwick said. “And I love being part of it.”
Foley addressed the crowd — and the camera, as the meeting was streamed live on Biddeford Public Access– to thank everyone for attending and to assure them that the commentary provided would be carefully considered and relayed to the mayor and City Council. Foley also encouraged those watching and hoping the center will be saved to contact their respective city councilors and let them know they that, or to call or email her.
The committee will use the commentary when drafting a recommendation to the council.

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