After losing several sources of funding and its executive director last month, the Soldotna Senior Center is working to adjust to financial losses and rebuild trust with the community, according to new center leadership.
The senior center provides meals, transportation and community for about 300 seniors in Soldotna. The center recently lost its funding from the city, and two major grants, including one from the state of Alaska. In June, the center removed its executive director and was able to recoup funding from the Kenai Peninsula Borough.
“We all know there’s been some controversy with the Senior Center, but as of today we are back in compliance with our borough funding, and we are working on getting everything else in order,” said Lisa Riley, the new executive director of the center.
Riley moved to the Central Peninsula as a teen, and has worked for the senior center in different roles for the past five years.
She said the center is currently undergoing an audit, something the Soldotna City Council demanded at a meeting in June after members of the public alleged a culture of financial mismanagement at the center. She said they’re contracting with an Anchorage-based firm, and the audit could come down in the next few months.
Regardless of what the audit finds, the center will have to adjust after losing major sources of funding. Riley said seniors will notice the loss of a three-year nutrition and transportation grant from the state, because it will change the costs of food for members.
“We are making some adjustments to our meal programs, maybe using a sliding-scale system,” she said.
Seniors who currently pay no cost for meals, she said, may have to begin paying. She said that model will be based on other local senior centers that don’t receive that grant, and a Meals-on-Wheels payment program.
The other lost grant provided funding to family caregivers. Riley said for the time being, the center is not planning to revive that program.
“I put some feelers out about that, to see if maybe we should try to bring that grant back to the senior center, and I don’t think that’s going to work out, so I would rather not put our resources in that area,” she said.
Riley said the center does still have a grant to offer Medicare counseling.
In the long term, she said her goal is to revive the nutrition grant from the state and relaunch a project to build housing for seniors in Soldotna, called Park Manor.
Riley said she knows public trust in the center has eroded.
“There was a time where people were not feeling welcome here, and slowly but surely, I have let people know that my door is open,” she said.
In August, three seats on the Board of Directors will be up for election at the annual member meeting. Riley will also give a director’s report at that event.
