Over the past several years the town of Madison has invested heavily in its capital infrastructure making needed long-term improvements.  Many of these have been focused on education with the construction of a new Daniel Hand High School, renovations to Polson and Brown middle schools, and new athletic fields at the Hand/Polson campus.  The Seniors in town patiently supported these efforts while living with a small, cramped senior center.  Well that may change soon.  In the last year town officials have begun to look at a wide scope capital improvement plan to decide which capital improvement projects would most benefit the town.

Leading the pack appears to be the construction of a new Senior Center down town.  The proposal was submitted to the Board of Selectmen this week and reported in the New Haven Register on February 14th.  The proposed Senior Center would be a new 13,500 facility with initial estimates at $5.1M.  This would be located on Bradley Road across from the fields behind Academy School on the site of the current Madison Ambulance building.  Madison Ambulance would also get a much needed new facility on the site of the existing Senior Center on Old Rt 79.  This new site for the Paramedics would give them the additional space needed and improved location placing the group right on  RT 79 with immediate access to both north and south bound I 95.

This proposal has just started running through the approval process and will go to the citizens of the town in the near future for input/approval.  The vetting process for these large projects can sometimes be long, if everything goes smoothly it is anticipated that this would be a three year project. 

This is a much needed improvement in the town and hopefully it gets the backing it deserves.

Tom Burland  www.ct-shore-homes.com