By Marcia Moore
MILTON — Membership at the Milton Senior Action Center has doubled in the past three years, but that may not save it from the chopping block.
Closing the Milton center would save almost $30,000 a year, while members such as Julie Dieffenbacher say they will battle to save the center.
“It gives a lot of people someplace to go and socialize,” she said of the Filbert Street center she’s trying to save by appealing for help from local officials, including state Rep. Merle Phillips, R-108 of RR2 Sunbury.
Northumberland County officials are poised to close four of the county’s 11 senior centers, but Agency on Aging officials refused Tuesday to identify which centers are in peril. Staff and members at the Milton senior center are convinced they have been targeted.
Added 70-year-old member Charles W. “Skip” Snyder, “People will fight for this.”
Money woes have prompted the Northumberland County Area on Aging to consider cutbacks, and after a year of deliberation, a five-member task force led by former agency director Patricia Crone-Zalinski met Friday and recommended closing four senior centers.
Director Pat Rumberger would not identify the four because the county commissioners hadn’t yet been notified.
“There is a definite need for centers, and everyone wants one in their hometown, but this is a fiscal decision,” she said.
Commissioner Frank Sawicki, board chairman, hadn’t heard of the task force’s closure recommendations Tuesday afternoon, but said the final say is up to the agency’s advisory board.
“The decision and how it shakes out is not made by the commissioners, but the senior leaders of the centers,” he said.
Milton Senior Action Center manager Karen McCaulley said the county would save about $29,000 by closing the Milton center.
The state eliminated senior center revitalization funding five years ago, and with about 44 elderly residents presently on a waiting list for at-home care, Rumberger said, the agency has to make tough choices.
“It’s still up in the air, and I have to look at (the task force recommendation) and take it to the commissioners to decide, but we have to consider consolidation,” she said.
Services will still be provided and transportation provided to nearby centers for seniors who may lose their hometown center, Rumberger said.
That may be so, but Milton Senior Action Center President Harry Sprought said members won’t get on board.
“This is their center, they’re not going to go to another one, even if they get transportation,” he said.
Dieffenbacher said the 15-mile round trip to Dewart also exposes seniors to accidents.
“I don’t understand why they want to close it and send us to Dewart that has a population of 250 when Milton has a population of 6,500,” said center treasurer Pat Smalt.
Rumberger said geography was considered, and if Milton were closed, residents could choose to visit centers in Dewart or Northumberland, while Dewart residents would have only one nearby option if its center was shut down.
McCaulley said she had hoped to avoid closure by increasing membership from 61 to 120 in the past three years and adding a Healthy Steps exercise program, monthly trips, picnics, Bible studies and crafts.
Members have raised money to pay for a Wii video game, a grill and an air conditioning unit and are offering to pay an additional bill, if necessary, to keep the center open, McCaulley said. “Seniors are using the center, but our downfall is they’re not having many meals here,” she said.
While several members gathered Tuesday morning inside the center that has operated for 35 years to talk about its possible closure, a man came in to ask about joining.
“I told him I couldn’t accept his $5 fee (for an annual membership) since I don’t know if we’ll still be here in January, but I did sign him up,” McCaulley said.
Byron Brown, a 72-year-old Montandon resident, has lived alone since 1998 when his wife died, but only recently joined the Milton center and now stops in daily.
“I should have joined 10 years ago, and if it closes, I’m going to miss it,” he said.
n E-mail comments to mmoore@dailyitem.com.
