Fitchburg Council on Aging urges mobile shower unit be sited away from Senior Center

The Fitchburg Council on Aging voted April 9 to support placement of a mobile shower unit in the city but asked that it not be sited at the Fitchburg Senior Center. Todd Goodwin, chair of the Council on Aging, said the board wants services for people in need while keeping the Senior Center’s facilities available for scheduled activities.

Amanda Koeck, executive director of the Senior Center, told members that Sue Christensen, outreach and prevention coordinator for the Fitchburg Board of Health, had contacted her about parking a mobile shower unit on Elm Street next to the center. Koeck said the unit would not draw its water from the Senior Center and that greywater drainage is available at the proposed location, but she cautioned that the center is a very busy building with evening and weekend programming.

Rev. Annie Belmer reported that Community Health Connections (CHC) continues to offer emergency services, but Koeck said the portion of CHC that once provided showers to people using its drop-in center is now closed. Several members, while calling the service “a community necessity,” expressed concern about who would be responsible for monitoring and routine cleaning of the unit. Joe Byrne pressed for clarity on oversight and sanitation responsibilities.

George Bourque moved and Joe Byrne seconded a motion that the COA support the mobile shower unit being sited at a location other than the Senior Center; the motion passed unanimously. Koeck said she has already spoken with City Councilors Sally Cragin, Beth Walsh and Andrew Van Hazinga and planned to meet on April 10 with Stephen Curry, Fitchburg’s board of health director, to discuss logistics and health oversight.

Next steps: Koeck will report back to the COA after her meeting with the Board of Health director; the COA’s vote is a formal expression of support for locating the unit elsewhere rather than a land-use approval.