Mayfield Seniors Seek Parking

POTSDAM - The fact that many golden agers are remaining fit and active well into their retirement years is a wonderful thing unless you're trying to find a parking spot at Mayfield Senior Citizens Apartments in Potsdam.

Mayfield Executive Director David H. Fenton will be seeking Potsdam Village Planning Board approval April 1 to add up to 50 new parking spots to the 150 already offered at the senior citizen's complex on the May Road.

Mr. Fenton said parking has always been tight at Mayfield, but the changing face of seniors and their active lifestyles is creating even more of a strain.

When the Mayfield Senior Citizens Apartments were built in 1970, Mr. Fenton said widowed women greatly out numbered men, married couples were a minority and not everyone had a car.

Forty-years later all of that has changed, he said.

"The tenants are a lot more active than in the past," Mr. Fenton said. "We've got people on the go. Now we've got husbands and wives, both driving well into their 80s and beyond."

Georgianna W. Jones, 88, stopped driving recently after falling and injuring her hip, but said that still hasn't slowed her down. An 18-year resident of Mayfield, she agrees with Mr. Fenton that seniors today are nothing like the old folks of days gone by.

"It used to be when you turned 80 they told you to go sit in a chair, shut up and wait to die," she said. "Times have changed. We're more active than ever, and we don't intend to give up until we drop dead."

Mrs. Jones said even though she has lost the ability to drive she said the lack of parking at Mayfield is still frustrating for her and members of her family. She said her daughter often parks behind the nearby Save-Alot grocery store or behind Kinney Drugs just to pay a visit.

However, she said parking behind the store is sometimes problematic as well, especially when tractor trailers are unloading their cargo.

"It's not right. Parking is a problem over here," she said.

Mr. Fenton has already informally approached the planning board about the parking problems at Mayfield and is hoping officials allow the seniors complex to relieve pressure at the facility by adding new spaces at three different locations, including a new lot near the front entrance of the facility off the May Road.

He said the plan may not be the most asthetically pleasing, but is necessary to allow tenants and visitors a place to park when seeing loved ones.

"When this was built back in 1970, there was less than one parking space per apartment. It's just the way it was at the time," Mr. Fenton said. "A 70-year-old widow back then a lot of times wasn't driving."