Senior kitchen project finally nears completion
The Silver Circle luncheon program is back in operation at the Senior Activity Center after more than a two-year disruption resulting from a 2009 Suffolk County Department of Health Services inspection that found the center kitchen failed to meet standards.
At issue for Health Department inspectors was the failure to have a sufficient septic system to serve the building, lack of adequate water temperatures for dishwashing, inadequate ventilation and refrigeration and the lack of a grease-trap system.
Thanks to the Island’s Public Works Department, the project that was almost abandoned was completed last week. Town Board members just a year ago estimated the work would cost $70,000 to $75,000 and then lowered the estimate to $53,000, but it was still money the town didn’t have for a program serving so few people, Councilwoman Chris Lewis said at the time.
The kitchen served about 20 elderly Islanders, 80 and older, and their aides. Since the kitchen has been closed, meals have been prepared at the Dinner Bell program at Shelter Island Presbyterian Church and delivered to the Senior Activity Center by Meals on Wheels.
Town workers have been able to tackle much of the work on their own and to assist with other work that had to be done by outside contractors, according to Public Works Commissioner Jay Card Jr.
The final tally isn’t in yet, Mr. Card said. He hasn’t tallied the hours of labor his men have devoted to the project. But he estimated the cost of the upgraded septic system at a little less than $20,000 and new well at about $11,000. Those were critical to the Health Department’s concerns, he said.
In mid-May, town workers jackhammered the floor apart to enable a plumber to install the new kitchen waste line and a connection to the upstairs doctors’ offices.
Shelter Island Sand and Gravel installed an upgraded septic system in the lower parking lot that has been re-piped to accept all the building septic requirements, Mr. Card said. The new well location meets the required 200-foot separation from the septic system. Other approximate costs include driveway repaving at $5,500 and carpeting for the foyer at $2,200.
That’s in addition to money spent last year for a new oil tank that was installed in mid-December and a new commercial-grade stainless steel refrigerator, dishwasher, hot-water heater and three-basin sink. Even though installation of some of the purchased equipment had to be delayed, the town needed to show it was expending money on the project to keep HUD grant money flowing, Mr. Card said.
The town received more than $19,500 in HUD funding in 2011 and was expecting another $11,500 in federal grant money this year, according to Town Hall Administrative Assistant Barbara Bloom.
Grant money was being augmented with $8,000 from the Shelter Island Senior Citizens Foundation, and the Lions Club Foundation donated proceeds from its scallop dinner last October, totalling about $2,500, Mr. Card said.
There’s some work to be completed in the kitchen this week, with countertop parts to be purchased and installed, Mr. Card said. And there’s new flooring to be installed.
But at last, the project that was almost doomed at the start has come full circle to enable restoration of the lunch program.
