Ross County Senior Center eyes levy increase

CHILLICOTHE – Faced with revenues declining faster than its ability to cut expenses, the Ross County Committee For Elderly Inc. is looking to ask voters for a levy increase for senior services in November.

Jodi Riley, executive director of the Ross County Senior Center, went before the Ross County Commissioners on Monday to make a case for a replacement levy that would include a 0.5-mill increase to the existing 0.5-mill levy on the books. The organization responsible for such programs as congregate meal sites, Meals on Wheels, medical and general transportation services to seniors and personal care homemaking services is suffering from both reductions in revenue sources and rising costs.

Between 2013 and 2014, those services lost more than $14,400 in property tax receipts and more than $23,000 in just one of several federal funding sources, each of which experienced a decrease. In-kind revenue from donations also dropped $13,099 year to year.

All told, overall revenue dropped almost $60,000 from year to year, with a decrease of more than $70,000 for the year-to-date this year compared with the same period in 2014.

In the meantime, the costs have increased for utilities, raw food for meal programs and paper product supplies.

Riley said programming cuts have not been done yet, but that’s primarily because of steps being taken to run as lean as possible.

“In the past, the Ross County Senior Center had approximately 43 employees on record, and in 2015 we currently have 33 on staff,” Riley said. “We have had people leave, retire and resign to vacate jobs, and existing employees have absorbed the extra duties to keep salary expenses under control and use time and personnel more efficiently.”

The agency is not offering health insurance to those employees, and there have been no salary or wage increases given to staff except for those impacted by changes in the minimum wage.

Riley said the agency presently has waiting lists for home-delivered meals, has had to try combining driver routes for meals as a savings measure and is dealing with a transportation service for which demand is booming.

With less income in grant funding, a demonstrated reduction pattern in federal funding from the Older Americans Act and struggles also faced by the Area Agency on Aging District 7, which tries to provide financial support for senior services within its 10-county region as funds are available, Riley is concerned with the ability to maintain services at existing levels. Some counties, for instance, can only provide certain types of meal service a few days per week, which not only limits the number of meals seniors can receive but also limits much-needed social interaction that seniors have.

“Sometimes the fellowship is almost as important as the meal,” Commissioner Jim Caldwell said.

Riley agreed, saying, “We don’t want to have to change that (service).”

All three commissioners voiced their support for a ballot issue, but asked Riley to get with the county auditor’s office and get some more concrete numbers as to what can be brought in at different millage levels and what will be needed to get the organization through the next five-year period without service reductions. Riley agreed to do that and return to commissioners next Monday with either a clarification on a 0.5-mill increase request or another amount – a 0.3-mill increase was the most commonly discussed alternate figure put forth Monday morning.

cbalusik@nncogannett.com

740-772-9360

Twitter: @Chris_Balusik