ALTAMONT — Altamont’s senior citizens organization asked the city council this month for financial help to address maintenance issues on their building on Huston Street.
The council members said they would revisit the matter at a later meeting because of the number of projects and expenses the city is facing now.
Darrell Winter and Rhonda Heston spoke to the council on June 12. They hoped the city could provide $2,000 to the additional building improvements that would create a multiple use center.
Gage Guiot this year completed a mural on the side of the building. He is in the process of painting a mural in Parsons on Broadway Avenue.
Heston said she is site manager for the Southeast Kansas Area Agency on Aging, which uses the senior center as a congregate meal site and Meals on Wheels. The building has other weekly activities for seniors, including exercise, dominoes and cards, along with a monthly fellowship lunch.
She told council members that the AAA provided a $2,000 grant to update the building, including new toilets, door closures, etc.
“These items are needed to keep the building in good repair so we can continue to serve the community,” she said.
Additional money is needed to beautify the building, including window tinting, painting the back of the building and perhaps adding planter boxes in front. She and Winter told council members that they knew money was tight for the city, but they hoped some money could be directed to senior center improvements.
Mayor Richard Hayward told Winter and Heston that the city has a $500,000 sewer project going on, is making repairs to the city office and need to replace the roof on the library.
“We have a lot of funds going out that we were not budgeted for or had budgeted for,” Hayward said.
Winter told council members that the senior citizens organization owns the building and is responsible for all maintenance. Money is tight for the organization as well. He said he plans on speaking with county commissioners in the future.
Council members said they would look at the request again in six months.
Council members also heard a report on the city’s audit, listened to Becky Dantic, director of the Parsons Area Community Foundation, about setting up a community fund and approved a quote from Stanfield Roofing for $39,017 to repair the roof on a city building.
