Anchorage Daily News

WASILLA -- Managers of a Wasilla senior center say the center is in a "severe financial crisis" and may have to eliminate services if it doesn't get some help.

Wasilla Area Seniors Inc. Executive Director Sondra Kaplan issued a plea last week to state legislators and others. She said the center has already eliminated a day-care program for seniors, and, without outside financial assistance, may have to make more drastic cuts by April 1.

Those cuts could include eliminating transportation for seniors to doctor appointments and activities offered at the center like nutrition education and exercise programs, she said. The center may also have to consider shutting down an assisted living center that currently serves about 15 residents, she said.

The center had planned to cut a lunch service it provides, but a state pledge this week to advance grant funding for the program has kept that in place for now, center and state officials said.

The shortfall does not affect any of the 129-unit housing center the nonprofit group manages off Knik-Goosebay Road near downtown Wasilla. The housing center is separate and solvent, she said.

None of the cuts are for certain, but eliminating the center's services could affect hundreds of seniors, Kaplan said.

Kaplan said the group has not asked for any specific amount of funding and she would not specify how much of a shortfall the group is facing, saying she wanted to wait until she had more accurate figures. But she described it as "quite a big deficit."

The group's overall budget for running the center's programs is about $2.3 million, which is paid for through a combination of membership fees, state and federal grants, private donations and other fundraising, she said.

She said increases in utility bills, insurance, food and fuel costs were part of the reason for the shortfall. The center also expects fewer donations and grants this year because of the ailing economy, she said.

"It's across the board," she said.

The Wasilla senior center is one of about a half-dozen such centers in the Valley and has the most senior housing of any of the centers.

According to the center, it provides more than 39,000 meals a year, transportation for between 50 and 75 seniors a day and hosts a wide variety of programs for seniors from educational programs to a weekly game night.

Kaplan said the group has already cut costs, including laying off six staff members. It has also hired an accounting firm to review its books, and is working to make its meal and transportation programs more efficient.

State officials are also helping with the meal program, which is largely funded through a $160,000 federal grant that includes a state match.

Joan Gone, a program manager with the state's Senior and Disabilities Services Division, visited the center this week to look at ways to keep the program going. The program includes meals served at the center as well as those delivered to home-bound seniors.

The state has forwarded the last remaining part of this year's grant to the center to keep the program going, Gone said. The state also plans to work with the center to create meal plans and come up with a better system for tracking meal costs and how much food is on hand, she said.

The center's plea for financial help is its second in almost as many years. In 2007, then executive director Robin Hall issued a similar plea for financial help for the center which ended with the city of Wasilla giving the center $25,000.

The center has struggled with turnover in recent years and other problems. Kaplan, hired in January to replace former director Hall who resigned in December, is the center's fifth executive director in as many years.

More recently, in 2008, a state ombudsman who serves as a senior-care watchdog criticized managers for their handling of rent increases and for not responding to residents' complaints about noxious sewer-smelling gases that were causing respiratory problems.

Also in 2005 a falling out with a previous director, Tim Anderson, resulted in a private settlement after he and his wife, Mary left the center.

Kaplan said she hopes people will not be reticent to help because of some of the center's history.

"We're stating to our constituents that (the center) needs help and please don't pull back from helping because it's going to affect hundreds of people on a daily basis," she said.

Find S.J. Komarnitsky at adn.com/contact/skomarnitsky or 352-6714.

ADVERTISEMENT