Budget woes force Houston senior center closure

HOUSTON — Financial issues have forced the closure this week of the Mid-Valley Senior Center after more than three decades.

A statement issued by the board of directors said debt and cash flow contributed to the closure. The facility had operated with budget deficits for numerous years, and had exhausted reserve funds, according to a consultant’s review.

The president of the center’s board of directors, Patsy Tampke, declined to answer questions about the center’s finances Wednesday. Numerous services provided by the community center would continue uninterrupted, including the senior housing component and the Meals on Wheels program, she said. Some regular activities, including a card group and exercise group, would be relocated to the adjacent Cranberry building common room, Tampke said.

“I’m not going to answer any questions that have to do with a financial nature, because it’s really too sensitive and because I get too emotional about it,” Tampke said. “I know that it makes a good story, but I don’t know that it’s information that needs to go out.”

Although the building is closed, the board is still viable, still working and still meeting monthly, she said.

“What we’re trying to do is stop the bleeding,” said board member Ken White in the statement. “We are spending more than we bring in.”

The group presented a financial report to the board of directors at the center’s regular meeting Monday afternoon, and the board voted shortly thereafter to close the senior center.

Tampke said Tuesday board members were unsure how long the center would be closed. She did not return a call seeking additional comment about the fate of the center’s employees.

A former organization president said management changes in the early 2000s may have contributed to the financial woes for the project. Norma Frick recalled that under her tenure as president of the organization, which ended about 2009, operating margins were very tight, but workable. A combination of economic development and seniors seeking other housing options may have begun to impact the bottom line shortly after her departure, Frick said.

“Sure, it was a shoestring operation, but we were doing it,” she said. “We had to do a lot of volunteering and management.”

During Frick’s tenure, at least one phase of the Alaska Housing Finance Corp.-funded Blueberry Complex was built on the campus, but disagreements over the board’s directions led to her departure in 2009. Two other living centers, Cranberry and Manor, are located at the same campus, along with a community garden.

The conflict involved whether the center should remain independent or become a satellite of a larger group, and whether to bring in an outside group for management, Frick said.

“I felt like we should be involved in activities in both communities, Houston and Big Lake, and that we ought to be part of the community,” she said. “They just had a different point of view, I guess, and they thought they could streamline this.”

The Mat-Su Health Foundation has been working with the Regional Senior Services Coalition to find ways for Valley senior centers to work together, according to foundation spokeswoman Robin Minard.

The Anchorage-based Rider Consulting was hired to look at how the senior centers in Houston, Palmer, Wasilla and Talkeetna can work together most efficiently to provide services to seniors across the Mat-Su Borough.

“At this point, no recommendations were being made,” Minard said of the five-year review process underway.

The group was conducting an organizational as well as financial review, said Mary Elizabeth Rider, the owner of the consulting group. A look at the center’s financial records revealed long-running deficits, Rider said.

“They’ve been running at a loss for sometime,” she said. “They were really short. They couldn’t operate on what they were taking in. We gave that information to the board.”

Rider said the board decided to close the center, rather than accrue additional debt.

She declined to say how many years the center lost money, saying the board will ultimately decide what financial information to release.

As early as 2013, the long-range plan presentation for senior service centers in the Valley showed Mid-Valley operating with a $62,935 loss, equal to about 20 percent of its operating budget. In contrast, the same presentation showed the Upper Susitna Seniors Inc., another rural center, operating at a 5.4 percent deficit, and the Wasilla Area Seniors Inc., organization operating at a 9.9 percent profit.

The center has consumed most of its reserves, Rider said.

“People with great hearts do great work,” she said. “Sometimes the cost is too great.”

The Mid-Valley Senior Center was incorporated in 1984 and used grants to fund construction in the early 1990s of the then-named Frederick O. Baggett Building on property donated by the city of Houston. The group has its roots in a group of seniors who started holding potluck lunches in the Homesteaders Community Center in about 1980. Baggett was an enthusiastic proponent of incorporation for the senior center.

Houston quit-claimed the land to the senior center’s holding company in 2003.

Contact Brian O’Connor at 352-2269, brian.oconnor@frontiersman.com, or on Twitter @reporterbriano.