WASI grant denied

WASILLA – After listening to heated testimony that included numerous seniors angry with the way the Wasilla Senior Center is being run, Wasilla City Council voted three to two against giving Wasilla Area Seniors Inc. a $36,000 grant this year.

Council members Dianne Woodruff, Taffina Katkus and Steve Menard said before voting that because they’d received so many calls and e-mails from seniors about issues related to the senior center and weren’t getting all their questions answered by the WASI board or executive staff, they couldn’t justify the expenditure.

Council members Leone Harris and Colleen Sullivan-Leonard, however, said they felt confident enough that the WASI managers would use the money well.

WASI Marketing Manager Diana Straub, who spoke to the council during the hearing to justify the need for the grant, refused to comment on the outcome after the vote.

During a discussion on the grant ordinance, Woodruff, who runs her own accounting business, said she was confused by language in WASI’s budget summary which stated they only needed $19,926 from the city – not $36,000.

The Mat-Su Borough Assembly already had granted the non-profit organization $20,000 this year.

“I’d like to know what the actual number is,” Woodruff said, adding later, “The report raises more questions than it answers.”

Woodruff said she’d like to see WASI’s most recent audits, the organization’s tax documents and its food budget before she can agree to give them more funds.

Katkus reminded the council that the city budget is only showing a $39,000 surplus and the fiscal year is only half over.

“That’s not very much for a city this size,” Katkus said. “It’s not our money to spend.”

But Harris, who attended the meeting via conference call, said it wasn’t the council’s job to micromanage the senior center. Testimony expressing frustrations over the cutting of hours at the “Club 5” fitness center shouldn’t be the council’s concern, she said.

“The issue is the food,” Harris said. “They should take other issues to the people giving grants for those programs.”

The Mat-Su Health Foundation gave WASI a $135,000 grant for its fitness program, but has since changed stipulations of the grant, giving the foundation tighter control over how the money is spent.

Harris told the council that perhaps Sheila Walker — the former WASI programs director who was terminated by Executive Director Sondra Kaplan recently — was the one getting the seniors riled up for revenge.

Walker stated during a recent interview that she has nothing to do with the seniors uprising against Kaplan or the WASI board of directors.

She said earlier Monday that the board denied her termination appeal, claiming Kaplan followed proper procedures when she fired her at the end of October.

During the public hearing, board members Stan Mitchell and Carl Tinsley defended Kaplan and the general management of WASI.

Tinsely said WASI was $388,000 in the hole when Kaplan took over two years ago.

“She brought us out of that hole and put us back in black,” he said, adding that the previous chef had been over-spending on the meals before Kaplan took over, but that the food at the center is nutritionally balanced. “We’re doing the best we can with what we have.”

Several seniors testified to the poor quality of the food, the lack of activities and the general lack of caring of most center staff.

After finally reaching the microphone with her walker, WASI member Betty Ward gave an emotional appeal for the council to do something about opening up the center’s Club 50 Fitness program on a more consistent schedule again.

She said she and many other seniors who’ve depended on the center and the expertise of fitness trainer Karla Atwood to improve their mobility are feeling lost without access to the center.

“I have high hopes that I will again walk without this thing, but I can’t unless I get the physical therapy and exercise I need,” Ward said as she nearly broke down in tears. “I want that Club Fitness up and running.”

Contact K.T. McKee at kate.mckee@frontiersman.com or 352-2252.