Billerica seniors form task force, launch petition drive for new COA building

BILLERICA -- June 15, 2026, Billerica seniors launch a petition and task force campaign for a new Council on Aging center. A subcommittee of the Billerica COA board, convened by alternate member Marguerite Massey, met June 15 to organize grassroots pressure on the Select Board to fund a feasibility study for a new senior center, a study that COA board member and former selectman Dan Perentz estimated would cost roughly $1 million and take 12 to 15 months. No formal votes were taken, but attendees signed up to collect signatures at Market Basket, the Farmer's Market, and other public sites, with petition language to be kept simple: "We want a new senior center." Perentz urged the approximately 11,000 seniors in town, about 25 percent of the population, to attend Select Board meetings and "vote out people who are against the senior center." COA Director Hamali pledged operational data and a dedicated newsletter section for the task force but said it would be politically inappropriate for her to lead the public campaign herself, drawing a contrast with the former director who had been "the face" of an earlier failed push. A defunct Capital Facilities Committee, described as the proper mechanism for long-range town facility planning, was cited as urgently needing reactivation by the Select Board chairman.