The Soldotna Senior Center has regained hundreds of thousands of dollars in lost state grant funding. The award, announced last month, comes roughly two years after the center lost that revenue source amid alleged financial mismanagement by executive staff.
Lisa Riley took the center’s helm after the center reorganized, and says they’re turning a new page after getting the grant back.
“We're not only able to maintain the seniors that we have been providing services for, we have room to grow, to reach more seniors in our community, with meals, with transportation, with PFD application help, we have a Medicare counselor on staff here, so it just lets us serve more seniors now,” she said.
The grant is offered through the Alaska Department of Health and totals $880,503 across three years. As an independent nonprofit organization, Riley says roughly half of the money the center gets each year comes from grants. The rest is from donations.
That’s why it was such a big deal for the center to lose its state grant — and then city funding — back to back. The center also came close to losing money from the Kenai Peninsula Borough, but held on after a leadership change.
“We have new kitchen staff,” she said. “We have new office staff. We have new board members and a new director.”
But even though the senior center’s restored state funding, it hasn’t been able to get its annual contribution from the City of Soldotna. Riley and a group of senior center patrons petitioned Soldotna City Council members for funding earlier this year. But a request from the center for $12,900 went unfilled last budget cycle.
Riley says she’s not sure why they were unsuccessful. The center spent $24,000 on an audit of their finances, which city council members had said could help restore trust. And Riley says many seniors who’d previously expressed concerns about the center spoke in support of restoring city funding this year.
“I did everything that I was required to do to get funded from them again, and they just did not put us on the budget,” she said. “And I was not given a reason why.”
When seniors took words of support to the council in April, some council members expressed an interest in seeing newer audited statements. But many said they were encouraged by the center’s upward momentum.
Transportation services were impacted the most after the loss of funding in 2023. As a result, less seniors used the center’s vans. Right now, Riley says they have two cars that are used to deliver meals and for small trips. But she has her eye on a 15-passenger van that could be used for larger trips outside city limits.
But transportation is just one area where Riley sees room to grow. Restoration of the state grant has her thinking about expanding and serving more Soldotna seniors. On average, she says the center reaches between 300 and 400 seniors each year. Riley wants to double that.
“Our last census showed that we had twelve hundred seniors within our city limits and I would like to do a substantial amount of outreach in the next year or so, and see our numbers improve,” she said.
Riley says she has an open door policy, and encourages any seniors who may still be on the fence about the center to visit with her. She says the center is always open to seniors looking for a meal or a game of bingo.The Soldotna Senior Center, including the dining room, is open Monday through Friday from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m.
