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December 2, 2005
Seniors victimized by political opportunists
This cold hard fact begs the question: What will our county government do for the scores of low-income seniors who depend on the center for their one hot meal of the day and whatever they can hoard away to their tiny, lonely homes? Hopefully - and this might seem like the meanest statement ever written - county commissioners will do nothing, at least not until the shattered and tattered remains of the private, nonprofit senior center board and its charter is buried under six feet of dirt and six years of bad memories. What arrogance certain trustees have shown. A bridge will have to be built between now and the day of the funeral or else people in the winters of their lives could go hungry. For those who missed today's report published in the Pahrump Valley Times, the latest joke of a Pahrump Senior Center board of trustees has disintegrated like a suicide bomber at the last second of his life. The money is gone; the board has split the scene and one good man doing a favor for his dead friend has been left holding the bag. Walt Kuver stepped into a stinky political cesspool when he took over for the late Bill King, who actually had seniors' best interest at heart. Kuver on Tuesday will ask the Nye County Board of Commissioners for immediate financial support. He will ask a cash-strapped commission for a minimum of $141,000 and a maximum of $263,000. In return Kuver will undoubtedly be asked quite a few tough questions before any deal - expect lots of emoting - could be worked out. Former trustees will point the finger at county commissioners, who declined to bail out the senior center in 2004 when warnings of the inevitable financial train wreck were first sounded. But this isn't a case of government failing to live up to its obligations. Rather, the suddenly defunct board of trustees of the private, nonprofit senior center has nobody to blame. When trustees refused the county permission to review their accounting books at the same time they asked for a handout they pretty much screwed themselves - and senior citizens - out of any financial commitments. What arrogance they exhibited. County commissioners, in other words, weren't about to throw your tax dollars at a problem they had no idea how to solve because they were given no opportunity to see, exactly, what the issues were. What have we learned from this? For starters, senior centers have no business breaking off from county government and the six-year experiment in doing that very thing in Pahrump has proven to be an utter, unequivocal and unmitigated disaster. Mary Jane Files, the executive director of the senior center, will likely be sacrificed as the scapegoat if commissioners are to ride in on their white steeds and save the day. There has to be a scapegoat because the first task commissioners must successfully complete is the total eradication of the current operation, its bylaws and its status as a nonprofit. Files' ousting might be inevitable but it's possible she could stay on if commissioners remember a few facts. One of those facts is this: The senior center failed in large part because too many people with blind political ambitions tried using a seat on the board of trustees as a springboard to elected office. In the past few years at least three people ran for various elected offices - judge, district attorney and county commissioner - while serving on the senior center's board. Seniors vote in greater numbers than any other demographic so wouldn't it be sheer freaking genius to ingratiate one's self with those who depend on the center for food, companionship, transportation to medical appointments and so much more? But seniors did not buy into the phony sincerity and none of those who tried to use them were successful in their respective election campaigns. Each of those elected office hopefuls forgot about seniors and the promises they made to them shortly after the polls closed. But why the senior center is bankrupt isn't as important as the fact that it is bankrupt. County commissioners will try to do whatever they can to rescue their oldest constituents, but government moves slowly even in emergencies. The private sector might be asked to step in and provide that bridge mentioned in the fourth paragraph of this column. Food banks ran by both religious and secular entities could offer to provide necessities to the center if the need should ever arise, and what better time of the year to come forward in unity than now? If it is true societies are judged by how they treat their youngest and oldest citizens, than this crisis could be used to show the world Pahrump is still a community full of selfless people willing to chip in when times get rough. And wouldn't it be wonderful for the outside world to finally understand there are far more houses of worship in Pahrump than there are houses of prostitution? The outpouring of support could be contagious and the county commissioners on Tuesday should assign a coordinator to assess what the needs are, how to donate, what to donate and when to donate. Their second act should be this: Formally dissolve the private, nonprofit senior center's board of trustees and welcome the facility back into the county fold. Making sure low-income senior citizens have food and blankets is a goal all of us should strive to achieve and only the stingiest taxpayer would begrudge them the funding. As things stand now, if the nonprofit continues to exist we'll see more people wheedle a seat on the board and then attempt to use it as a means to get elected. And that, my friends, would be a shame. What arrogance they would display. Write to Doug McMurdo at dmcmurdo@pvtimes.com. |
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