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Rent charged to Austintown Senior Center used for other township needs
AUSTINTOWN
As voters prepare to head to the polls to decide on renewal of the township’s 0.5-mill senior-citizen service levy, a former head of the Austintown Senior Center questions whether those funds are being used solely for seniors.
“I just want money that is raised for senior services to be spent only on senior services,” said Bill Adams, former volunteer director of the senior services nonprofit organization Austintown Generational Enrichment.
Austintown voters first approved the levy in 2010; it generates $306,483 annually. When that funding arrived, the senior center became one of the few township offices to be charged rent — $130,815 in 2015 — for its township-owned facility.
As a result, just 57 percent of the funds generated by the levy go directly to senior services. The remainder is used to pay rent to the township. Surplus funds from the rent fund township services, such as recreation, that may have nothing to do with senior-center operations.
Of the 10 buildings the township maintains, only operations housed in its Westchester Building are made to pay rent. The building houses the senior center, the township zoning department and the fire-inspection department. The building was donated to the township in 1996 and also houses three private businesses: On Demand Drug Testing, Mahoning County Lead Abatement and The ClassRoom Aerobics and Training Studio.
When asked why other government departments don’t pay a percentage of their levy money, such as the park department, township Administrator Mike Dockry said it was because other township buildings were built by township funds with the intent of using them for township purposes and the Westchester building was donated for the purposes of use for recreation – a specific use not designated necessarily to the township.
Dockry said the Westchester Building receives profit, through rent, to carry out the promise of the former owner Walter Terlecky. Terlecky mandated that any profits be spent on park and recreation for the benefit of township residents.
“The senior center is being charged for space and treated as any other [tenant],” Dockry said. “If a third party made an offer better than the senior center, we might rent to them.”
Since the township took over senior services, it now qualifies as a government entity, he explained.
Adams, who left his role in 2011, said he found it odd that the center started paying rent after the influx of levy money. Before the levy, the center, which was started in 2009, did not pay rent to the township.
“There was never any talk of rent by the township – there was no money,” Adams said. “The thought was to get the center started as soon as possible,” he said.
The senior services was funded on a small $15,000 budget, made up of donations and grants, and directed by Adams and AGE volunteers.
“That rent payment is going to the township to plug gaps in their budget and not for services for seniors,” Adams contends.
The rent charged to the Westchester tenants equates to about $9 a square foot.
Since the senior center has the largest square footage of the building, 14,540 square feet, it pays the most rent.
Westchester’s total 2015 rent revenue from its six tenants was $242,827. Of that, the senior center paid $130,815. Westchester’s 2015 maintenance costs were $117,338 — which comprised utility costs, grounds-keeping and various other services. The balance of the rent — $125,489 — is spent as trustees see fit on township needs and not exclusive to senior center needs.
“Trustees spend it on appropriate things that come up,” Dockry said.
Most recently, Dockry said $50,000 out of the fund was used for unspecified equipment in the park and senior center.
The township’s trustees – Ken Carano, Rick Stauffer and Jim Davis – all referred questions about Westchester to Dockry.
Over the course of the five-year senior-citizen service levy, the rent from the senior center alone paid out more than $654,075, 43 percent of the senior levy’s revenue each year.
Jim Henshaw, senior center director, is fine with the practice and said all the money ends up going back to the taxpayers, no matter where the service.
“The money recycles itself back into the township – it circles back to the taxpayers,” Henshaw said. “It’s a good investment.”
Mahoning County Auditor Ralph Meacham said levy money is usually restricted to what the levy says it’s for.
“If it says ‘senior services,’ it’s senior services,” Meacham said.
Dan Tierney, a spokesman for the state Attorney General’s office, said he could not comment specifically on the township’s senior levy without gathering more information – which he pledged to do.
Adams said if the senior center was treated like an administrative building and not charged rent, there would be an additional $130,815 to fund many more senior opportunities.
These could include social workers checking on the elderly in their homes or providing a dial-a-ride service that seniors could use.
Another option instead of the tax funding non-senior needs, Adams said, would be to reduce the levy’s millage.
Adams said he suggested the township take charge of running the senior center, as many other townships in Ohio do in their communities. At one point in early 2010, Adams said he signed paperwork to become a township employee, but the trustees later decided to have AGE continue to run the senior center.
That changed after the five-year senior citizen service levy passed in November 2010. Township officials decided to take over senior-citizen services, alleviating AGE’s responsibility.
Adams said the amount of money coming into the building and from the levy is far more than he would have imagined as former director.
“That is just such a huge budget for just that senior center,” Adams said. “There is no need for that much.”