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OGDEN — The number of centers serving Weber County's seniors will likely be whittled from five to three or four by the middle of next year per a reorganization and consolidation initiative meant to better use limited funding resources.
By consolidating operations to three or four centers, Kevin Eastman, executive director at Weber Human Services, hopes for "better service overall."
Weber Human Services works with Weber County to coordinate services for seniors with individual cities, but with limited funding, county officials are pursuing change to maximize the impact of the funding. Senior centers currently operate in Ogden, North Ogden, Roy, Riverdale and Washington Terrace, but with the shift under discussion, that list would be reduced to three or four. Moreover, cities would take on more responsibility in operating the centers that remain, possibly requiring those that retain facilities to pitch in more funding.
"We are trying to engage cities in a stronger partnership," Eastman said. He hopes for more guidance from city leaders as the 2024-2025 fiscal year progresses on which center or centers should be eliminated effective the 2025-2026 fiscal year.
North Ogden Mayor Neal Berube, for one, is on board with the shift to "regionalization" of services. He doesn't foresee a reduction in offerings for seniors and, on the contrary, worries that maintaining five centers would spread the limited resources that are available — some $236,000 a year — too thinly. A key element of the shift, he thinks, will be figuring out transportation alternatives to help seniors travel to the reduced number of senior centers.
"We'll have to work together to make this work," Berube said. He favors narrowing the five centers to three and said the Roy, Riverdale and Washington Terrace senior centers are the ones most likely facing uncertain futures. As it stands, each center serves all comers, regardless of where they live, and that would continue under the changes being discussed.
Tom Hanson, the Washington Terrace city manager, understands the financial reality of the situation. Weber Human Services funnels federal, state and county funds to senior centers, and Eastman said the funding level in Weber County has held steady over the years at around $236,000, even as the numbers of seniors grows. "I recognize that the county only has so much they can put toward senior centers," Hanson said.
He holds out hope the Washington Terrace facility, which is built and maintained by the city, will remain. But he also notes city resources to supplement funding from the county are limited.
"We just don't have more money to help support the programming side of senior services. It's unfortunate. I just have to leave it in the hands of the county," Hanson said. He suspects county leaders will make a decision on which senior centers to retain "based on their funding ability and what senior centers they want to support."
For the 2024-2025 fiscal year, which started July 1, the five centers will each get an equivalent injection of funds from Weber Human Services, around $59,000, Eastman said. Weber Human Services will supplement the usual funding to provide the higher-than-normal total, some $295,000 in all. Cities are invited to submit operational plans for the coming year, according to Eastman, and the changes under debate will take effect, at least as now envisioned, in the coming fiscal year, which starts July 1, 2025.
Berube said parity in funding hasn't always been the norm, and, similarly, Eastman said the arrangements between Weber Human Services and each of the five locales have lacked consistency. In prior years, Berube said, the agency funneled the cities of Ogden and North Ogden around $44,000 each to help cover the cost of programming for seniors while Roy and Washington Terrace received around $70,000 each.
Accordingly, North Ogden's senior center will get more money for 2024-2025 than it has in the past, Berube said, though he said the city could be pressed to provide more funds in years to come.
Apart from the lunch and social programming at the brick-and-mortar senior center facilities, Weber County and Weber Human Services funnel funding for other services for the elderly, according to county figures. Some $1.4 million in all per year goes for the varied offerings, which also include home meal delivery, transportation, caregiver support, counseling and Medicaid support to allow seniors to keep living at home.
