The Village of Midway is taking the next step to becoming more aging friendly after city staff and experts heard from their target demographic last week at a meeting at Parkview Manor.
Last week’s meeting came after village staff and community consultant James van Hemert spent the month prior surveying the community to get a better sense of how Midway could adapt to its aging residents.
Half of the population of Midway is over the age of 60 and many more are just on the cusp. Meanwhile, province-wide, the 50 per cent population marker sits at 43 years old.
The community survey and feedback sessions highlighted specific areas of improvement for the village to explore. For example, 63 per cent of survey respondents indicated that “light yard work” was an inhibiting factor for aging in their own home in Midway, 56 per cent said light housekeeping would be prohibitive and 54 per cent indicated that transportation to and from their home would be an issue.
One solution proposed by attendees last Wednesday to the issue of in-home aging was to bring in a program like United Way’s “Better at Home” to help individuals with yard work and other tasks that, left undone, might force them to move into assisted living facilities out of town.
Such a program, proponents suggested, could also address the concerns of 59 per cent of survey respondents who replied to a question on employment opportunities, saying that there weren’t enough for seniors in Midway. Those who are able could offer their help and companionship to those who aren’t.
Addressing concerns about a central public washroom and information hub, Mayor Martin Fromme suggested that the village look into building a plaza that would house both services and be centrally located.
Van Hemert’s survey also revealed that transportation and accessibility posed significant worries for many in Midway. More than two thirds of respondents indicated that safe and comfortable sidewalks or trains were not available where they needed them: along most roads, through parks and for highway crossings.
Where lining Midway’s streets in sidewalks and retrofitting public buildings like the community centre and library to be more accessible could prove to be expensive and labour-intensive, van Hemert said that Midway is well-positioned to tackle the challenge.
The consultant insisted that for its size, Midway was already far ahead of the game compared to other towns in the province.
“I’ve been to places with five to six times the population,” van Hemert said, “and they have basically the same level of service [that Midway has].”
Having a local government, rather just a regional representative, the consultant said, makes Midway “richly endowed,” because it means that the projects set by Wednesday’s attendees may have a better and quicker chance of success.
