Longterm lease for Parker Senior Center questioned
- Charlene Sims, Journal staff
- May 31
- 5 min read
By Charlene Sims, info@linncountyjournal.com
MOUND CITY – The attempted completion of the contract with the city of Parker for leasing the Parker Senior Center to the city for 99 years, brought up concerns by Commissioner Alison Hamilton about what Linn County is doing for the senior citizens in Linn County.
Last week, Hamilton had expressed reluctance to vote on the contract using the 99-year time period on the contract and the absence of Commissioner Jason Hightower. She asked to table the contract until Tuesday, May 27.
At Tuesday’s meeting, Parker Mayor Jason Webber met with the commissioners to answer any questions about the contract. Webber explained that the lease agreement was the one that the county’s previous county counselor, Mark Hagen, had sent to the city of Parker last fall.
Hamilton said that she was not familiar with what the building is. She said she did not know where it was located.
She said, “If you guys do, do you have any issues with it? I don’t like the fact that it was a 99-year lease.”
Hightower asked why she didn’t like the 99-year lease.
Hamilton said she did not know.
“We owned it, we own it and now we’re going to do a 99-year lease to the city of Parker?” asked Hamilton.
Hightower said that was correct.
Commission Chair Jim Johnson said that with the agreement, the county was going to do away with the maintenance of the building and the city of Parker would take the building over.
Linn County Clerk Danielle Souza said that the county will pay the property tax and the city will take care of everything else.
Webber said that the senior meals program was closed several months ago at Parker.
Hightower added that this would give Parker a community building and it keeps something open there so we are not closing it down. He reminded everyone that the county voting site would still be available and this would be providing a service by partnering with the city. He said that was how he viewed it.
Webber said he believed that it stated in the lease agreement that at any time the city or the county could cancel the agreement. He said that if it was decided that the county wanted to reopen the meals program there again it would not be an issue.
Webber said that the city presently uses the building for city council meetings, city court and they are already the entity that has been taking care of renting out the building for events.
Hamilton asked Webber what the date was that the Parker City Council voted on this and what the vote was.
Webber replied that the vote was 3 to zero because several members were absent at the May 12 meeting.
Johnson commented that Hagen had written the contract after the commissioners had talked about it for quite a while before Hamilton was sworn in as commissioner.
Hamilton stated, “I guess as a county, are we just looking to close down sites for food? I mean how many do we have left?”
Congregate meal sites in Linn County are Pleasanton, Blue Mound, Mound City, and Centerville. La Cygne closed their site several years ago because the La Cygne Library offers lunches and programs to senior in that community
Hightower who is Linn County’s representative for the East Central Kansas Area Agency on Aging said, “The reason those get shut down, Ali, is because when we don’t have attendance at a congregate site by the time we’re paying staff it doesn’t make financial sense to continue having it.”
Hamilton said, “I understand that side of it. Let’s just take Bunker Hill as an example of people trying to understand how do the meals work? How do we get someone employed? How do we get them operating like Pleasanton is operating? Does it take more volunteers? Does it take more money? We’ve asked questions on the Meals on Wheels, and then there’s issues of funding of how that’s going to work.”
She expressed concern that as a county there are constantly less resources going to the elderly. She said she just felt like this was another example of just going to sign the lease away and shutting the door on reviving the meals program.
“It’s fine if that’s the direction we want to go and maybe you guys (Parker) will do a better job of providing services to your community,” said Hamilton.
She said that she just wanted to make sure that as a county, did the county do everything for that facility and try to reach the people that are there. Did we do what we were supposed to do?
Webber said, “If we have it, we are going to continue to do everything that we’ve done with you guys in the past, renting it out to community events and maintaining it. We are looking at some different options of things to do, you know, maybe give it a better curb appeal.”
“Like to me, it felt like maybe we have failed as a county and like the direction we are going with all of our facilities and we don’t have a vision for that moving forward and we just keep on pushing, you know, the elderly care things and Meal on Wheels away and so, yes, you guys might do a better job,” said Hamilton.
Webber said that if it was something that the commission still wanted to think about that was OK. He said it was the previous commission that brought this offer to the city. He said it took him awhile to get the Parker City Council on board with it.
Hightower said that by just leasing it, it keeps the building in the county’s inventory. The lease can always be exited if we have people desiring to use it for senior programs.
“It really falls back on the directions of the county. For me, for all of the sites, for all of the meals and what we are providing,” said Hamilton. “I’ve had people reach out to me specifically about Bunker Hill asking how do we get this back up and running like Pleasanton.”
Hamilton suggested that the county counselor Jacklyn Paletta review the agreement and the commissioners can vote on it next week. Hightower agreed.
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