Lewis County Public Health and social Services Director Danette York talks with seniors at the Pe Ell United Methodist Church at a meeting on Monday. Commissioners Edna Fund, center, and Gary Stamper, right, decided to fully fund the centers through the end of 2017.
Lewis County commissioners announced they were meeting on Thursday to begin forming a transition team for the county’s senior centers.
The announcement came during a meeting with seniors at the Pe Ell United Methodist Church, which serves as a venue for the county’s nutrition program, offering two meals every week.
The meeting would include representatives from the six senior programs in the county as well as county staff. It would seek to establish the member makeup and guidelines for the full team, which could begin meeting in January.
The Pe Ell group is the only program in the county that does not have a dedicated building, like the other five centers, but instead rents a church for $300 a month, Public Health and Social Services Director Danette York said.
Representatives from the Lewis-Mason-Thurston Area Agency on Aging, which receives federal funding to provide nutrition services at centers throughout the county, said they will be putting out bids for 2018 contracts next June.
“We are very hopeful that somebody is going to be stepping up,” said Tracy Guner, contracts manager for the agency.
At previous meetings, the commissioners have expressed their desire to transition the senior centers to nonprofit status. Gunter said if they group together under a new service contract provider, they could benefit from an economy of scale when purchasing goods like food, receiving bulk orders at a lower price.
The county has talked with Catholic Community Services in the past about taking over the centers, and York said if the county is able to offer them facilities free of charge, the organization would provide food services as an in-kind donation.
Commissioners Edna Fund and Gary Stamper covered familiar ground as they reiterated the financial problems facing the county.
As in past meetings, Fund said providing indigent legal defense, funding for the courts and Sheriff’s Office and medical care for inmates, among other law and justice expenses, costs the country around 80 percent of the general fund budget.
Falling timber revenue over the past decade has also hurt county coffers.
Stamper said the county was looking at many options for transitioning the centers out from county ownership.
“This is on the county’s shoulders to make sure that we are looking at all the options,” Stamper said.
He also said he hopes the centers will be serviced by a singular new provider, but said he couldn’t guarantee that would happen. But he said the county would lobby for that outcome.
The total county budget for senior services is around $701,000. After grants, donations and dues, the total amount the county foots on its own is $376,000.
The commissioners sparked outrage in late November when they announced the county would end funding for the senior centers. After a meeting in Winlock at which many seniors expressed anger and frustration with the decision, the commissioners announced they would extend the funding through 2017, but they still plan to drastically reduce their funding of the facilities in the next budget cycle.
The next meeting in a series the commissioners are holding at area senior centers will be Wednesday at 12:30 p.m. at the Morton Senior Center.
