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December 9, 2005
SENIOR CENTER CRISIS Nye takes a wait and see approach
PHILLIP GOMEZ
By then it could be too late. "The district attorney needs time to study the matter to determine what the county can do in this situation," said county manager Michael Maher after north-county precinct commissioners Joni Eastley and Midge Carver let it be known where they wanted the senior center agenda item to go. Pahrump Town Board member Laurayne Murray said she acknowledged "the struggle between a caring heart and the commissioners' fiscal responsibilities," but added, "If you do nothing ... it will flounder to a death that we're just going to stand back and watch and say, 'It's not my fault.'" As a result of the commission's deliberate inaction, in an emergency for which they were forewarned by at least a week, the Pahrump Senior Center will likely close - for a period of from one to four weeks while it gets its house in financial order through enactment of drastic cost-cutting measures. "We're going to have to close down very soon to assess whether we can open again, and see if we can (do that)," said senior center interim treasurer Pam Webster. "I just don't see any way around it at this point." Webster drove in from Shoshone for the public petitioner hearing, and the other six members of the interim board of trustees were also present. The senior center's debts total $263,000. The most parlous problem is a $10,000-per-month cash flow shortage for daily hot lunches and meal delivery to homebound seniors. As much, or even more critical for many seniors is bus transportation in and around Pahrump and medical trips to the Las Vegas Valley, trips which many depend on for survival. For both services, the center charges fares, but they are also heavily subsidized. Walt Kuver, vice president of the senior center, asked that the request for $71,000 owed to an architectural firm for design of a new senior center be "de-emphasized" and sidetracked from discussion. "The way I feel right now," said a seething Commissioner Eastley, "I feel I have no obligation to pay off these debts. I feel no obligation to assist with these past problems ... It is not my intent to let people go hungry, but until we have some scenarios (of alternatives), I would prefer not to take any action on this at all." Commissioner Gary Hollis, representing a Pahrump Precinct, was quiet for almost all the discussion, but said finally that he agreed with Eastley. Eastley voiced a number of legalistic concerns about the non-profit's bylaws and the legality of the present interim board of directors. She pointedly asked if the center's executive director was present. When told she wasn't, Eastley said only, "Interesting." She also said, "There are going to have to be some tough financial decisions made for this county ... This board has to decide right now whether we want to step in to solve these problems. I know this sounds hard-line, but that's the way I feel." Others present agreed with Eastley. "As much as I sympathize with the Pahrump seniors," said Jan Cameron of the Amargosa Valley Town Board, "I would like to see them raise the needed funds locally rather than get a bailout from the county." Pahrump's Sally Devlin wanted to see the senior center dissolved and returned to the county to operate. Devlin has long been a member of the senior faction in opposition to the center's management. Al Barrera, representing the Hilltop Church of Pahrump, saw the commissioners turn a disinterested ear to his church's offer to pick up financial support for the center. He denounced Eastley, saying he did not agree "with the vice-chair's position that essentially the seniors be damned." Commissioner Patricia Cox, whose precinct is Pahrump, said she had received many phone calls since confirmation of the senior center's plight surfaced last Friday in the Pahrump Valley Times. The large majority of her callers were bitter about extending any financial aid to the senior center, she said. None of other commissioners, who stood united in agreement with this policy, said whether they had received phone calls for supporting or against supporting the center. Commission Chairwoman Candice Trummell was not in attendance. The senior center plans a fundraising Christmas dinner on Dec. 17. "We are also doing cost analyses to ... see how to lower costs for food," said Ken VanHeule, the interim president of the center's board of directors. Cox was most concerned about the consequences of seeing the center fall flat under the weight of its accumulated debt: "I believe we have to have a service for the seniors, and if we don't, we're going to have it back on our plate." She laid the blame for the center's financial difficulties on past boards of directors who had "never been active in fundraising. "The sins of the past are gone and I don't think we need to criticize Walt Kuver," Cox said. But the other commissioners we're less willing to forgive and forget or to make distinctions in who represented the senior center. Their focus was having been slighted by representatives of the until-now independent non-profit. They remembered too well former board president Claudette Crook's abrupt turning and walking out on the commissioners in high dungeon during a funding request and financial review in July 2004. "We offered to take the senior center back and we were refused," said a nettled Commissioner Midge Carver. "They simply got up and walked out. We didn't create this situation. We were ignored and ... I really resent that fact." |
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