SEQUIM — It doesn’t make a lot of sense to Michael Smith that a senior center would be passed over by the Sequim City Council.
Smith, director of the Sequim Senior Activity Center — a place he says serves many low-income, infirm community members — applied for $10,500 in city funds during 2010.
Each year, the Sequim council pays the United Way of Clallam County a $1,000 administrative fee to scrutinize applications for its $49,000 in funding earmarked for health and human services. The United Way then provides a recommended list of recipients, which the council approves.
This year and last, the Sequim senior center was not on the list.
The United Way recommendation did include eight other agencies that the Sequim Council considered, at varying levels of funding:
• $10,000 for the Dungeness Valley Health and Wellness Clinic, which is a free clinic for uninsured residents.
• $5,000 for Family Planning of Clallam County.
• $5,000 for First Step Family Support Center.
• $9,000 for Healthy Families of Clallam County’s services for survivors of domestic violence.
• $5,000 for Olympic Community Action Programs’ services for young children.
• $5,000 for the Peninsula Community Mental Health Center.
• $5,000 for Serenity House’s services for people who are homeless or at risk.
• $5,000 for Volunteer Chore Services, which helps people with disabilities continue living in their own homes.
Smith addressed the council during its meeting Monday, urging the members to amend or override the United Way recommendation, to provide funding for the senior center, which has some 1,450 members.
Council approved list
The council voted 5-1, with member Erik Erichsen opposed, for the United Way recommendation, though not before some members expressed concern over the senior center’s future.
By law, Sequim’s health and human services funding must go to help “the poor or infirm,” City Attorney Craig Ritchie reminded the council.
The senior center itself, located at 921 E. Hammond St., isn’t either of those things; it has $843,000 in assets, Smith said.
Yet when he told a group of seniors about the available funds for the poor and infirm, “they said, ‘Duh, that’s who we are,'” the director added.
Smith wanted to use the funds to reach out to low-income seniors, and make them aware of the inexpensive activities — such as chair yoga, bunco, art, matinee movies, glee club — offered daily at the center.
The senior center provides a place for people to meet new friends, exercise and learn new skills, Smith said — but added that apparently the United Way selects only agencies addressing “basic needs.”
Mayor disappointed
Since the senior center doesn’t provide necessities such as food or housing, it didn’t fit that standard, Smith believes.
Mayor Ken Hays expressed disappointment, though, in the United Way’s choice to exclude the senior center.
“It seems to me having a life, and not feeling alone, is a basic need,” he said.
Council member Susan Lorenzen spoke up then, saying that the United Way had tough decisions to make when drawing up its list.
And with the $5,000 for Volunteer Chore Services, the recommendation does support seniors, she said.
United Way director Jody Moss reminded the council that it could still make changes to the list. But the members did not.
Erichsen voted against the whole recommendation, saying he didn’t want city monies to go to the agencies without taxpayers’ direct approval.
Lorenzen, who would have preferred further discussion, abstained from voting.
Hays called for a change, however, in the spending of Sequim’s funds earmarked for human services.
“The city has to find a way,” the mayor said, “to support its own senior center.”
For information about the Sequim Senior Activity Center, visit www.SequimSeniorCenter.org or phone 360-683-6806.
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Sequim-Dungeness Valley Reporter Diane Urbani de la Paz can be reached at 360-681-2391 or at diane.urbani@ peninsuladailynews.com.