Tonight, Feb 13th at 7:00 PM, the Reading Community will have the opportunity to provide critical feedback on the types of interior rooms and outdoor amenities at a proposed Senior Center/Community center. Feedback will help advance center design studies going forward. At tonight’s virtual-only meeting (link below) Architects will present conceptual design studies.

I have been able to obtain a copy of the slides for tonight from a ReCalc member (see PDF that goes with this post) , where these slides show substantially similar concepts to those shown in the ReCalc meeting last week. It is very important to understand that the slides for tonight should be read and understood with the accompanying presentation that better explains what the features are and how they work. I did watch the recalc/council on aging presentation last week that had these slides, and definitely important to help understand. FWIW the attendees from COA and RECALC seemed to prefer the Oakland Road idea as their top preference, in an informal show of hands at last week’s meeting.

You will see that the slides show three possible locations – Symonds Way (new building) , Pleasant Street center (the renovation/addition and interior gutting), and Oakland Road (a new building on town/school owned property across from RMHS that the former town manager (Fidel) had considered at one point for affordable/senior housing.)

And your eyes are not deceiving you with the Oakland Road plan – yes on slide 14 it proposes 4 outdoor pickleball courts and yes those 4 outdoor pickleball courts appear to be located right behind some homes on Chestnut and Cold Spring Roads.

These are not “for sure” designs to choose from, but simply concepts with architects showing what is possible on the land, and they definitely want community feedback.

Join Zoom Meeting https://us06web.zoom.us/j/83794644262

Meeting ID: 837 9464 4262 Passcode: 466049