Marion senior center struggling to stay afloat
Staff writer
While Marion City Council grapples with its 2027 budget, Marion Senior Center is trying to stay afloat.
A non-profit working on only $400 a month in income from the county, the center has had to cut spending on insurance. At Monday night’s city council meeting, it asked for $10,000 a year from the city to cover utilities and insurance
Council members unanimously voted to allocate between $5,000 and $10,000 to the center in 2027.
“I was excited that they at least approved $5,000,” center treasurer Norma Kline said Tuesday. “That will pretty much pay for our building insurance.”
Hillsboro gives $10,000 a year to its senior center, and Peabody gets money for its senior center through grants, Kline said.
Marion’s senior center had to drop its insurance because costs got too high. What originally was $1,400 a year, Kline said, increased to $5,000 a couple of years ago.
“At the time, we knew there was no way we could afford that,” she said. “So, we had to drop coverage on our building and contents. Now, we just have liability, which runs us just under, I believe, $1,000 a year.”
The building itself has no coverage.
“Our fear is running out of money,” she said. “Our utilities run about $6,500 a year. Last year, we were fortunate and shared in the Eberhard Grant fund. We got a little over $49,000.”
But maintenance and repairs can quickly exhaust resources.
Aside from money the center gets from the county as rent for the county’s Department on Aging, the only income it gets to pay rent, utilities, and liability coverage comes from daily meals and donations.
The center serves up to 70 meals a day through dine-in, delivery, and takeout, Kline said. Kline said it has attrated people from outside Marion because their communities don’t have an active senior center.