Perryville Senior Center may have funding cuts restored

The Perryville Senior Center Board will have to wait a few more months to hear whether its funding will be reinstated.

The Perry County Senior Service Tax Commission met Wednesday and was scheduled to discuss a 15 percent cut in the Perry Senior Center Board's 2015 budget. But because all the information was not available, the decision was tabled until its July meeting.

Perry County Senior Service Tax Commission chairwoman Juanita Zahner said she believed the board would be able to raise the reduced grant money in July, but nothing was certain until the board votes.

"[The reason for the cuts was] because the sales tax revenue didn't generate enough funds to comfortably award the full grants. Lately, our county's sales tax revenue is up," Zahner said.

In January, $55,000 in planned cuts were applied to the Perryville Senior Center in Perryville and the East Perry County Senior Center in Altenburg, Missouri. Perryville Senior Center Board chairman Eugene Dreyer said employee hours and meal prices would be affected at each facility.

"We've made the adjustments, and we did actually get a nice contribution from the Eagles Club of $2,500," Dreyer said. "We've cut back on staffing moderately, but we haven't let anybody go."

Since the cuts, employees at the East Perry County Senior Center have seen a 15 percent reduction in work hours. The board also requested a rent reduction at the center, and seniors age 55 to 59 supported by the Perry County Senior Services Sales Tax board now are charged $3 for their meals. From seniors age 60 and up, a donation is requested, but people in need will not be turned away, according to previous reports.

All senior service programs in Southeast Missouri receive some funding from the not-for-profit organization Aging Matters. In January, $10,000 of the $55,000 cut from the Perry County location came from Aging Matters.

United Way of Southeast Missouri director Nancy Jernigan said the only senior center the organization funds is Jackson's.

"We used to fund the Cape Center (which cooks for the Scott City center), but they stopped requesting funds several years ago because of additional funding they were receiving from other sources," Jernigan wrote in an email.

The United Way considers all funding applications and makes a decision based on "how much we have to allocate and how closely their program addresses our goal areas in our Community Impact Agenda for Change," Jernigan said.

Last year, the Jackson Senior Center was allocated $10,000 for its meal-delivery program.

"The Cape Girardeau senior center avoids budget cuts by with funding from elsewhere. While the facilities in Cape Girardeau County receive some funds from Aging Matters, other monies come from the Cape Girardeau County property tax that provides a more stable revenue than the sales tax.

In recent months, Zahner said Perry County's sales tax revenue has risen. Perry County collects a 0.25 percent sales tax, with half of that solely funding senior services provided by the county. The other half is used to fund youth programs.

Zahner said the main requirements to determine which organization receives a grant is the organization has to be a certified not-for-profit that benefits people 55 and older.

Even with the adjustments, the centers still serve between 60 and 125 meals daily at the Perryville location and between 25 and 30 at the Altenburg location, Dreyer said.

"We're dealing with the situation, but with our type of nonprofit, we just adjust the operation to what funding there is," he said. "But we're not going away by any means."

smaue@semissourian.com

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Pertinent addresses:

Perryville Senior Center, 4 North Spring St., Perryville, Missouri

East Perry County Senior Center, 200 Church St., Altenburg, Missouri

Jackson Senior Center, 2690 Travelers Way, Jackson

Cape Senior Center, 921 North Clark Street, Cape Girardeau