Senior Center Not Immune To Funding Crisis

The Mountain View Senior Center at 210 School Avenue has not escaped a funding crisis impacting senior centers statewide.
Ted Hall, CEO of Batesville-based White River Area Agency on Aging (WRAAA), during a visit May 29 to Mountain View, said funding for senior centers has been a problem for years for the contractors who run them.

Hall said the Mountain View Senior Center will continue to operate five days a week for the foreseeable future, but WRAAA directors are hoping Stone County people will rally around the effort that serves more than 200 senior citizens at the center and at homes.

The administrative problem became exclusively WRAAA’s problem in July 2023 when White River Health System — the contractor who ran the Mountain View Senior Center and others in WRAAA’s 10-county region — served notice it would opt out of its contract June 30, 2023.

“This is happening all over the state,” Hall said. “White River (Health System) kept all the terms of its contract and lost millions.”

WRAAA has run senior centers throughout its 10-county service area since White River Health System’s contract ended. Hall said White River Health lost $1.7 million during its contract period.

In Stone County, the center has served meals to 211 individuals since July 1, 2023, according to Jessica Horton, chief financial officer for WRAAA.

Collectively, between meals-on-wheels and the center’s cafeteria, the Mountain View center served 21,582 meals during the same time period. WRAAA spent about $90,000 on food, which may not accurately depict the actual value of the pantry because some food is donated by regional food networks, Horton said.

In Arkansas, senior centers bring services to people 60 years and older in accordance with the Older American’s Act (OAA) of 1965, according to WRAAA Deputy Director Shanna McGuffee.

Arkansas Area Agencies on Aging are mandated to administer OAA funds and food services or retain a contractor to deliver the services, she said.

The money crunch came to public attention statewide on May 20 when the Central Arkansas Development Council (CADC) based in Benton declined to renew a contract to run eight senior centers serving areas of Arkadelphia, Benton, Bryant, Glenwood, Gurdon, Malvern, Mt. Ida and Murfreesboro.
CADC has run the centers for 37 years.

he centers vacated by CADC will be run under the authority of Hot Springs-based Area Agency on Aging of West Central Arkansas.

West Central AAA has asked CADC to continue running the centers through the end of the year. That proposal is being considered, but it would happen at a loss to CADC of $700,000, according to CADC.

Hall says pretty much the same scenario has played out here with WRAAA and the Mountain View Senior Center.

It’s not uncommon for hospitals to get involved with senior centers in Arkansas at a hands-on, service level and to incur losses. Hall says hospital have long considered cash and administrative services to senior centers “good will” from the hospitals that serve seniors medically.

But the COVID-pandemic crisis and companion emergency funding that followed it to hospitals and local governments is running out, Hall said.
“And the price of food increased and has not corrected,” Hall said.

Plus, the Mountain View Senior Center has a problem unique among other centers in the WRAAA network — rent.
Batesville-based North Arkansas Development Council (NADC), a service agency heavily vested in early childhood programs like Head Start, is a past administrator of the Mountain View Senior Center. It owns the building at 210 School Avenue.

Staci Albert, CEO of NADC with 38 years in NADC administration, said NADC in 1984 purchased the building that houses the senior center from Mountain View School District.

Albert said NADC was approached about selling the building to Stone County to enable the center to operate here rent-free. In an effort to move that opportunity forward, the NADC board set an asking price which was believed fair, Albert said.

“I think we’re willing to listen to an offer. We don’t have any problem with the senior center operating at another location, if that opportunity comes forward.

“They (WRAAA and Stone County) need to do what is best for them and the seniors of Stone County,” Albert said, in an e-mail to The Leader.

Read the full story in the June 5, 2024, issue.