Old Lyme ― With a $19,500 allocation from the Old Lyme Board of Finance and a new design picked, a proposed $5.5 million Lymes’ Senior Center expansion, meant to better accommodate the needs of citizens 55 and older in Lyme and Old Lyme, is progressing.

The proposed expansion for the senior center, which is located in Old Lyme at 26 Town Woods Road, includes larger spaces for programming, better partitions between spaces in the center and a larger kitchen.

The Old Lyme Board of Selectmen at its April 3 meeting announced a $19,500 allocation from the Board of Finance to cover preliminary costs.

First Selectman Timothy Griswold said the project should be ready to go out to bid by the first part of July.

Jeri Baker, chairwoman of the Lymes' Senior Center Building Committee, explained that the $19,500 appropriation would go towards any costs for the project between now and July 1.

“We don’t expect to spend much,” Baker said in an interview. “It’s kind of a just-in-case fund.”

Prior to a vote on the project, the Lymes' Senior Center Building Committee will hold a public forum, according to Baker.

The Board of Selectmen has updated the total cost estimate of the project to $5.5 million. This number includes the architectural fees of the project, which were already appropriated and paid in another fiscal year, Baker said.

Old Lyme-based Point One Architects in 2022 was awarded $287,300 to carry out all design and architectural responsibilities through the completion of construction, according to Baker. The fees were split between the two towns, with Old Lyme paying 75% and Lyme paying 25%.

Now, the committee waits to hear if the Old Lyme Board of Finance will add the updated cost estimate to the town budget for consideration by voters, Baker said. This would merely address Old Lyme’s portion, as each town has separate budgets.

“We’re working with two different towns and two different budgets, so it’s been fun and exhausting,” she said.

Lyme First Selectman David Lahm, said the town has included its share of the center expansion in the 2023-2024 budget.

“We will be following the Old Lyme 75%, Lyme 25% funding model,” said Lahm.

Baker says the committee is hopeful about the project’s progress.

“We’re excited, and hopefully if things really move along the way we hope them to, we might be able to break ground after going out to bid and negotiating contracts,” Baker told selectmen. “We could break ground by October or November, the end of the year.”

The Lymes' Senior Center Building Committee is looking for other sources of funding for the project, including applying for state grants and private fundraising, according to Baker.

“We’re looking for anything that we can find that would relieve some of the cost for the two towns,” said Baker.

The building committee also decided on an expansion design, choosing the smaller of the two possible designs the architects provided.

The design shows an 8,575-square-foot layout that will build westward toward the High Hopes Therapeutic Riding facility. It includes the reconfiguration of the entire inner space plus added space and movable partitions to allow for simultaneous programming, Baker said.

Baker pointed out that Stephanie Lyon-Gould, the director of the senior center, has said the center currently cannot run simultaneous programming due to space constraints.

“Stephanie does a wonderful job planning programs and activities, so this is to support everyone,” Baker said.

The design includes a 814-square-foot kitchen, allowing extra space for cooking, serving and eating.

The committee believes the expansion is necessary.

“It’s a small building, and the need for expanded space was evident really early on,” Baker said. “Pre-COVID we had an explosion in our membership. Several years ago we went from about 300 members to up over 1,200 before the pandemic started, and now we are close to 1,100 again.”

The committee has been constantly working in a collaborative manner to address this increase in membership, Baker said.

“We’ve been working nonstop since October of 2019, as we only missed one meeting in that time,” said Baker. “Ultimately, this building just needs to be rehabbed. It’s old, it needs help, and we consider ourselves the best kept secret in both towns.”