Spencer senior center representatives scrambling to answer: What's next?

Representatives from the city of Spencer and the Spencer Area Activity Center (SAAC) brainstormed Thursday morning in an ongoing attempt to answer the looming question: What's next for the town's senior center?

Last month, SAAC board members voted to close its doors on Dec. 31 if a feasible answer is not reached by then. Senior center board members have calculated the SAAC will have approximately $50,000 left in the center's money market account at that point.

"We've been working on this for over three years, and now we're to the point where we're ready to say 'We're going to lock the doors,'" longtime board member Tom Manley said.

"If we wouldn't have received money from a couple of estates, we would not even be in here today," reported Mary Ann Harden, the SAAC's director.

Housed in its present location within Spencer's Gateway North Center since February 1994, the meeting center for area senior citizens also serves as the site for congregate meals. It's estimated the center provides activities, as well as a place to meet, for 300 -- 325 people each year. Harden indicated between 5 and 10 percent of this number reside outside Spencer's city limits.

The SAAC, also known as the Clay County Council on Aging, is among the mall's tenants that currently owns its respective space in the building. The Gateway North Center's condominium-type makeup currently has the senior center paying a $3,065 monthly "common area fee" to Iowa Lakes Community College (ILCC). Harden reported this assessment is expected to increase $7,000 - $8,000 next year.

"And, we don't know what our common area fee is going to be the year after that," she said during Thursday's discussion.

While the senior center site has been appraised at $345,000, it was listed with an asking price of $295,000 recently. It was noted during the meeting that a possible buyer, identified as a telemarketer, backed out of a potential deal to purchase the space after learning that the current common area assessment will increase in 2009.

Besides selling the senior center space, options such as relocating to the old Spencer Middle School (SMS) building's first floor office area, renting space from the First Christian Church, renting the site to another entity, the city assuming the SAAC's programming, pursuing a "reverse mortgage" option, and approaching ILCC and Buena Vista University (BVU) representatives to ask if they'd be interested in expanding their operations into the space were also broached during Thursday's discussion.

Alerted to the fact that several people have already expressed an interest in either buying or renting the place, those gathered yesterday then learned that renting the place to another entity would negatively impact the SAAC's 501(c)(3) status.

Spencer Superintendent Greg Ebeling reiterated the school district's willingness to work with the group to "help out however we can."

"We certainly would like to see the seniors in the first floor of the middle school. There's no question if we could make that happen we'd sure like to," he said. "...The school needs to have somebody occupy that place. But we also know CHI (Community Housing Initiatives) has been kind of sitting back and saying, 'We don't want to look like we're really interested in the first floor because we don't want to scoop it from the seniors (if they're interested in it).'"

CHI was awarded $2.2 million in federal Low-Income Housing program tax credits on March 5 to assist in the creation of 16 condominiums on the school building's second and third floors. Representatives from the non-profit "Friends of the Old Spencer High School Auditorium" group are also working with district officials to restore the building's auditorium area.

At the mention of a $444,187 cost estimate to make the former school's first floor "inhabitable" -- which includes a two-pipe heating, ventilation and air conditioning system but not a handicap-accessible restroom -- SAAC meeting attendees were forewarned by Ebeling that they "would have to deal with some utility cost."

"There is no way we could have bingo without air conditioning," a senior center representative stated.

"And we can't survive without bingo," another added.

The superintendent then suggested a three-party agreement between CHI, the SAAC and the school district.

"My guess is we'd do some kind of a percentage basis on how much of the building you occupy," Ebeling said, alluding to the eventual payment of costs associated with upkeep and future infrastructure improvements benefitting building inhabitants.

"As it stands now," senior center representative Roy Stroud said of the proposed agreement, "Community Housing would pay approximately $20,000. We'd pay $10,000 and the school would pay $57,000. So it'd be up to the school to govern all of the condo fees, because they'd have over 51 percent."

As he moved to depart the brainstorming session, the group asked Ebeling to pursue a discussion with CHI President Doug LaBounty about the possibility of his non-profit housing development and consulting group's taking over the SMS building's first floor and renting it out.

The senior center's director also noted she'd visited with a First Christian Church representative, who had offered to rent a portion of its building at 701 E. 18th St. to the SAAC for $1,000 - $2,000 per month.

"We haven't had any discussion as far as the board and how we liked it, but that is an option," Harden said, adding it was an all-inclusive offer.

Board members indicated over the last three years they'd discussed charging $25 membership fees to belong to the senior center, eliminating Harden's full-time position and the roles of some part-time office staff members, as well as reducing hours the center is open each day. All were deemed "not realistic" or an alternative that "won't work."

"Our expenses are about $188,000 with bingo, and our income is at $160,000. So we're only losing about $28,000 a year," board member Becky LaBarre said. "...If we stayed in here and kept operating like we're operating right now, we would need an additional $35,000 a year to break even (by the end of June 2009). ... We either need some additional sources of outside funding or some wonderful fundraiser."

Representing City Manager Bob Fagen around the discussion table, Spencer City Clerk Donna Fisher was asked if there is "any viability of the city taking over the programming of the senior center."

"My take on that," Fisher replied, "is the answer would be no. I think we're in the same boat as the school: We have limited funds. And I don't see where we would get the income to cover that. Plus, it's a county facility. ... As far as it being a city-run facility for the county, I don't see that. I don't know why the city and its citizens would take on that responsibility. I think you need to talk to the county about that. That's just my two cents worth."

"For us," Fisher continued, "capital is definitely easier than ongoing expenses. Because we have trouble with the general fund covering the city's ongoing expenses as far as police, fire, the things everybody assumes should be there, capital expenses are easier to handle.

"That's how this facility got here in the first place, if you remember. There was a couple hundred thousand dollars that was put into this facility, and that's how it got here. And $100,000 of that was from the city. So $100,000 of this is a donation from the city to be here today. Unfortunately, if this is too expensive and too much space to maintain, then it's the operating of this asset that becomes a burden. I don't know if there's been some talk with the county as far as what to do with this asset; I haven't had conversations with Bob, except to say I would rather see us look at something in the capital nature and propose that to the council than to try and build something into our budget that we have to cut $200,000 - $300,000 off of every year already and we have to go to the departments and say, 'You can't have another officer and you can't replace this piece of equipment because there's no general tax dollars to do that.'"

In his suggestion of another possible answer to the senior center's current predicament, SAAC board member Manley offered a "reverse mortgage" concept.

"We could tell the college we're just going to give it (the SAAC space) to them and then ask if they'd let us stay here for 20 years. In other words," Manley described, "we'd give it to them, but we'd stay here and not pay them anything."

"That'd be a nice try, I'd say," one senior center representative said.

When Fisher then asked if the center could meet its budget and afford to stay in its present location if it didn't have to pay a condo fee, "whether you have bingo or not," LaBarre tentatively answered, "I think we could do it."

At the conclusion of yesterday's meeting, Harden indicated she'd visit with the president of BVU to ask if the Storm Lake-headquartered college might be interested in expanding into the senior center location. Manley was also directed to talk with ILCC President Dr. Harold Prior about potential dealings between the two parties. Spencer's city clerk also said, "If you want Bob (Fagen) to help market the facility, then tell him to market the facility and that's what he'll do. But, you need to decide, I guess, where you're going from here. If you need to sell this facility or if you want to be part of a smaller facility and somebody else buy part of it, then I guess you need to make that decision."