Senior Citizens Center outlook not so bleak, thanks to cutbacks and aid from supporters

Lemoore’s Richard Rea, the new president of the Lemoore Senior Citizens, couldn’t be blamed for being upbeat Thursday afternoon as he watched a core group of Kings Lions Club members put the finishing touches on a backyard beautification project. The local Lions Club has spent the last three weeks, digging, hoeing, planting trees, and painting in an effort to restore what once was a thriving back area of the Senior Center, located adjacent to the Lemoore Golf Course.

Between removing trees, checking the sprinkler system and digging out an old deep pit, Lions Club member Joe Arruda, who spearheaded the project, said his club, was more than happy to help. “This is just giving back to our seniors,” he said. “We’re doing a service project for the senior citizens so they can begin renting out the back area to help them in the future.”

Arruda said the club budgeted $2,700 for the service project and were busy spreading a truckload of bark on Thursday as they finished. “We asked them if we could help them out and we went to the board and their board was more than welcome to bring us in and do the work.”

The local seniors have indeed struggled for the past few years. The recession no doubt hit daily lunch attendance hard, and recently the board let go its gardener and janitor to save money. On some days lunch is bringing in 30-35 seniors, other days, maybe six or seven.

“We had to take the bull by the horns and had to make some cuts,” said Rea. “We eliminated the gardener’s job because that was a cost. We had a janitor we were paying over in the nutrition building and by eliminating that we are saving about $8,000 a year.”

Rea said the county is supplying the seniors with a new janitor through a program that trains people for specific jobs in the work force.

Is the prognosis for Lemoore’s Senior Center bright?

“Oh, I think so,” said Rea. “We’re doing much better. We’re up to our mouth now, but we were up to our eyeballs at one point. We are surely but slowly seeing daylight and I think we’re going to survive.”

He also suggested that reducing lunch prices for seniors from $5, where they are now, to maybe $3 will help bring more seniors in for lunch. At one point in the seniors’ history, Kings-Tulare Area Agency on Aging used the Lemoore Center as its central kitchen, cooking meals and delivering them to various county centers through Kings and Tulare counties. But like many worthwhile agencies, funding tends to dry up during recessions.

“Somewhere along the line, I’m not sure when, they lost their funding, and they bailed out and we were left alone,” said Rea. “We get no county money, no state money; no city money. We’re just strictly on our own.”

Rea said the Center relies on its Wednesday night bingo game and an occasional yard sale as well as their annual fireworks booth. The seniors are also planning their second golf tournament fundraiser, which will be held on Friday, October 3 at the Lemoore Golf Course.

The seniors also rent out their facility to local groups. “I think a lot of this stuff that the Lions are doing now… is going to enhance our ability to rent this area for summer activities.”

In fact the Lions Club will holds its annual Luau there on September 6.

Another bright spot on the horizon is a possible Community Development Block Grant that the City of Lemoore applied for in April. The city has applied for a series of CDBG grants totaling nearly $2 million. Included in the package is support for rehabilitation of the Senior Center, a grant to aid seniors with their lunch program, a grant to provide seniors with a full-time individual to manage the facility, and funding for a maintenance worker.