Senior center gets $30,000 from city

BARSTOW • To help offset the rising cost of utilities and enhance its services, the Barstow Senior Citizens Center entered into a professional services agreement with the city for $30,000.

The city, which owns the building, also entered into a new lease agreement with the senior center and appropriated $3,500 to cover repair costs. The new agreement replaces two former leases from 1979 and 1990 respectively. According to Jeanette Hayhurst, the city’s community services director, the city will take care of landscaping and major repairs to the building.

Without the $30,000, the senior center would have to cut back on the meals it delivers to seniors’ homes or reduce the quality of food, according to Jeff Eason Sr., the senior center’s president. Food costs have increased by about 19 percent, he said.

One of the city’s stipulations in the professional services agreement is that the senior center be able to match the $30,000. Eason said this will be done through membership dues, revenue taken in through its bingo nights and private donations. The senior center must also provide city staff and the City Council bi-annual written reports of its activities. The $30,000 will be paid in two $15,000 installments. The money was included in this year’s budget, Hayhurst said.

According to City Manager Richard Rowe, Barstow is the first city he has worked in with a completely independent senior center. The city of Chino, where Rowe was city manager for 11 years, built a new senior center and fully staffed it, he said. Without the senior center, the city would be responsible for making sure recreational programs are available to the seniors, he said.

“Senior programming is no different than programming for the kids,” he said. “And frankly, it doesn’t mean the city has to provide those services, but I think we have a responsibility to make sure they are provided adequately.”

Currently almost 500 people use the senior center a week, Eason said. The center provides meals to 80 homebound seniors and more are on a waiting list. With the $30,000, the senior center will be able to add more homebound seniors to the meal delivery list, he said. And with a new lease agreement in which the city would cover major repairs, it helps free up more money.

“We had to keep so much money for major repairs,” Eason said. “With the contract services agreement we’ll be able to perform at a higher standard and be able to offer more to the seniors.”

Several classes, groups and clubs operate under the umbrella of the senior center including the Holiday Meals program, which will be giving out 1,000 meals on Thanksgiving, Eason said.  

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(760) 256-4123 or jcejnar@desertdispatch.com