The creation of a senior center is still on the table in Marion, but Selectmen have ruled out one town-owned lot located behind the Town House.

“A separate building is desirable to a lot of people, but I don’t see it happening there,” Selectman Stephen Cushing said.

On Tuesday night, the Town House Building Study Committee sought direction from Selectmen.

In April, Selectmen appointed seven members to the committee that consists of the town’s Facilities Manager, members of the Elizabeth Taber Library trustees, a member of the Friends of Marion Council on Aging, Selectman Chair Jon Henry and members of the public.

Renovating the aging Town House is the committee's main focus, but members said other options, such as joining the town's main municipal building with the Elizabeth Library, should be explored.

Committee member Bob Raymond presented Selectmen with those preliminary plans for discussion.

The plan to build a senior center would infringe on the little league ball field behind the Town House.

Board members expressed their doubts on that course of action.

“I don’t favor incorporating the senior center on that site because it just wouldn’t be right to take away a ball field,” Henry said. “And then that would have to be duplicated somewhere else.”

Selectman Jody Dickerson said the field holds nostalgia for many in town.

“People remember sitting on that stonewall as kids to watch games,” Dickerson said. “There are a lot of memories there.”

The plan to connect the library with the Town House would add meeting space for the Town House and expand the library.

Committee member Priscilla Ditchfield said at a public hearing held a few years ago, residents expressed interest in weighing different plans, including the possible addition of a senior center at the site.

“It’s my understanding that the town wants to know the answer to that question – what would it look like and what it would cost?” she said. “I think we need to go ahead and make that determination."

In a July letter to Selectmen, committee members wrote that if the project’s scope was expanded to include an Elizabeth Taber Library expansion and senior center, then library staff and senior advocates should join the planning process.

“To create a senior center certainly has merit,” Henry said, adding that the Friends of Marion Council on Aging are currently researching the matter.