Seniors swinging hammers to erect Fort Kent club

FORT KENT – Fort Kent senior citizens are building a new home for their 300-member club.

Really – the senior citizens are building it themselves.

For nearly three decades, they’ve been hoarding nickels and dimes for their own meeting place.

The club members had $165,000 in the bank when they started the project, and last week they received a $29,000 grant from the U.S. Department of Agriculture Rural Development.

A seven-man crew, varying in age from 55 to 79 years old, was at the site Wednesday morning, swinging hammers, sawing boards, carrying sheeting and installing it on walls and the roof.

Included in the crew were the president of the club, Irvin Roy; chairman of the Building Committee, Ray Theriault; Paul Emile Rioux, 79; Normand Daigle, 77; Don Pelletier; Normand Dionne; Edward Thibeault; and George Caron.

The members of the club, known as the Elderly Social Action Council, have wanted their own home for 30 years. For the last 15 years, they have rented space in the basement of the former St. Louis Convent.

“Isn’t this quite something,” Theriault said Wednesday morning, sweeping his arm around to where all the men were working. “We get a crew like this every day, sometimes more come, and we have work for all of them.

“It’s a 30-year dream for our group to have this home that will be our own,” he said. “It’s being built by members of the group, and we will owe nothing on it when it gets done.”

In a recent press release announcing the grant, U.S. Sens. Olympia Snowe and Susan Collins wrote: “Seniors need opportunities to meet friends and socialize to keep their minds and bodies active. This funding enables seniors living in the Fort Kent area to take advantage of these activities.”

Theriault said the club holds various functions including meals, card parties, bingo games and informational meetings for members who are from Fort Kent and area towns.

“We socialize with picnics and field trips,” he said. “The main objective of our group is the welfare of the elderly.

“It will be a place where we will try to provide a homey atmosphere,” Theriault said.

Last October, the members voted 90 percent in favor of construction. A 10-person Building Committee developed the plans.

The club members figured out what they needed, found prices and bought materials through the winter. Materials were stored until May 1, when they started the groundwork, which was done by one of their own, Leonard Dubois, with rented heavy equipment.

The one story building is 60 feet by 80 feet and lies on a 1.3 acre lot just east of the Northern Maine Medical Center. It is stick built with 6-inch-thick walls and a trussed roof, both covered by wood sheeting.

George Caron, a young member of their group and a contractor, is the expert of the crew. Some of his donated heavy equipment was on site to bring sheeting up for the roof.

The workers started framing the building two weeks ago, and they were sheeting the exterior on Wednesday.

The plans, penciled on graph paper, were displayed on a worktable. They showed where the kitchen, pantry, an office, two bathrooms, a utility room, several storage rooms and doors and windows will be located.

Work on the cement floor, which includes floor heat through pipes in the cement, was contracted to Rocky Bard of Bard Enterprises of Wallagrass.

The club members hope to open the new center for their annual Thanksgiving dinner.

At the work site, the summertime temperature was beginning to soar around 9 a.m. when James and Norma Corriveau arrived with cake, cookies, doughnuts, water and iced tea. Cora Caron arrived with a cooler of cold drinks.

“I don’t think it’s time for me to take a break,” Rioux said. “I just got here half an hour ago. I should work longer before I take a break.”