Senior centers face budget cuts

The senior centers in Scott, Perry and Cape Girardeau counties all have one main goal: to keep the elderly fed.

But with recent funding changes, some of these centers are struggling to maintain their operations.

After $55,000 in planned cuts to the 2015 budget for the Perryville Senior Center in Perryville and the East Perry County Senior Center in Altenburg, Missouri, employee hours and meal prices are going to be affected at each facility.

This means there will be a 15 percent reduction in work hours for employees at the East Perry County Senior Center. The board also is planning to request a reduction in rent at the center, and seniors age 55 to 59, supported by the Perry County Senior Services Sales Tax board, will be charged $3 for their meals, in house or delivered.

From age 60 on, a donation is requested, but people in need will not be turned away, Perryville Senior Center Board chairman Eugene Dreyer said.

Between the two facilities, five delivery vehicles are available to bring food to the homebound.

"What we're doing now, presently, is struggling along to see if any more funding becomes available," Dreyer said.

All of the senior service programs in Southeast Missouri receive some funding from Aging Matters, also known as the Southeast Missouri Area Agency on Aging. The not-for-profit organization serves 18 counties in Southeast Missouri at 32 different centers.

The essential goal of Aging Matters is to provide quality services to enhance the health, safety and well-being of people age 60 and older, enabling them to live in their own homes for as long and as independently as possible, according to agingmatters2u.com.

Both centers in Perry County and the senior center in Chaffee, Missouri, were affected when their funding from the Missouri Foundation of Health ran out. The changes became effective in January.

In addition to that, the Perry County locations also received a cut of $10,000 from their federally funded Aging Matters grant. The grant money depends upon the number of meals served each day, Dreyer explained.

However, the senior sales tax commission announced in November that revenue-generated sales taxes in the county were down, and there was not enough money to fund outstanding grants used at the Perry County senior centers.

"[The funding organizations have] been good to us -- we're not complaining -- but this is the way it is, we're suffering," Dreyer said.

In the past six months, the two locations have prepared more than 31,000 meals. Approximately 12,000 of these meals were delivered through the centers' homebound delivery service. Last year the two locations served 63,000 meals to seniors in Perry County. The Perryville facility is open five days a week and the Altenburg location serves lunch Monday through Thursday, according to perrycountyseniorcenter.com.

Dreyer said the entire cost per meal is $6.65, so the centers still won't be profiting, but asking seniors to pay for a portion of their meals will offset some of the costs associated with making them.

On an average day, the Perryville location serves between 60 and 125 meals, while the Altenburg location serves between 25 and 30. Dreyer said that Aging Matters assists in funding facilities that feed 50 people a day on average.

"The Area Agency on Aging [Aging Matters] doesn't fund Altenburg," Dreyer said. "Because on average they don't have 50 meals a day. *... Essentially, Altenburg only survives because of Perryville."

At the April 22 Sales Tax Commission meeting, the Perryville Senior Center Board is hoping to get a review of the sales tax cut decision and possibly receive more funding, Dreyer said.

"We do not desire to close the Altenburg center; if we don't receive funding we will have to review the other options that we have," he said.

While the facilities in Cape Girardeau County receive some funding from Aging Matters, other monies come from the Cape Girardeau County property tax, which director Susan McClanahan is thankful to the citizens of Cape Girardeau County for voting to enact.

"Without that money, we would be in the same boat," she said.

smaue@semissourian.com

388-3644

Pertinent address:

4 North Spring St., Perryville, Missouri

200 Church St., Altenburg, Missouri