CONWAY — After a Council on Aging review and months of discussion, the town is putting the prospect of joining the South County Senior Center on hold for now.

The main sticking point, Selectboard Chair Philip Kantor said, was there are too many “unanswered questions” around the governance of the Senior Center and its future home. Those challenges, among others, were also identified by the Council on Aging, which crafted a brief summary of its members’ thoughts.

On top of the questions, the timing is also difficult, as Annual Town Meeting season is just around the corner for Conway, Deerfield, Sunderland and Whately.

“From my perspective, there are so many uncertain questions and it doesn’t make sense to go forward. Even if all the unanswered questions were answered to our satisfaction, it still doesn’t make sense to go forward at this point,” Kantor said at Monday’s Selectboard meeting. “I do want to hand it to the Council on Aging — as a group they really identified a lot of the uncertainties and brought forward issues.”

In the Council on Aging’s summary, members said there are not any clear benefits of joining the Senior Center at the moment, as the council would lose much of its autonomy while also having to pay the town’s share — estimated at $32,507 — toward the center’s budget. About 15 Conway seniors use the Senior Center right now, Kantor said.

“The COA would have no decision-making power in the running of the SCSC or any classes they might hold in Conway,” the Council on Aging wrote. “Residents can already attend all SCSC programs, paying a slightly higher fee than SCSC members.”

Other concerns raised by the Council on Aging include transportation from Conway to Deerfield or Sunderland, as well as the future of Conway’s yoga classes and foot clinics and any costs that may come with changes to those programs.

Selectboard member Erica Goleman said she feels comfortable following the Council on Aging’s lead, especially since the people making up the council are the ones that would be using the Senior Center.

“There’s a reason they don’t want to join,” Goleman said. “I want to trust the members of our community that are making that decision.”

Some of those answers could be delivered in the coming months, as the South County Senior Center Board of Oversight has scheduled several Saturday meeting sessions in recent months to review the inter-municipal agreement between the three current towns and see if any changes need to be made.

The permanent home for the center, however, is still up in the air. The South County Senior Center currently leases space at the Holy Family Roman Catholic Church in South Deerfield and an administrative office on Route 116 in downtown Sunderland.

As of right now, the Senior Center is still considering the South Deerfield Congregational Church — especially now that state earmarks and Eaglebrook School have helped fund repairs in anticipation of Tilton Library moving in while its construction project progresses — as well as the former Sinauer Associates/Oxford University Press building at 23 Plumtree Road in Sunderland.

The center has been without a permanent home since the pandemic, as the former Senior Center, housed in the 1888 Building on North Main Street in South Deerfield, closed in March 2020 and then remained closed following the discovery of asbestos and other contaminants.

While the town is pumping its brakes on a potential merger right now, Kantor said he’s still interested in developing the idea some more and working with the Council on Aging and South County Senior Center.

“I’m not ready to throw in the towel,” he said. “To me, personally, I’m still open-minded, but definitely not this June.”

Chris Larabee can be reached at clarabee@recorder.com or 413-930-4081.