In the face of a growing senior population and a shrinking pool of federal and state grants, Clifton Park plans to partner with the Shenendehowa Senior Center to form a town department dedicated to seniors as early as next year.
Councilman Tom Paolucci, one of two Republicans up for re-election this fall, announced the plan at a news conference at the senior center on Monday, Sept. 24. Also present were members of the town board and the senior center board.
Paolucci has been the liaison between the town board and the senior center since 2003.
We’re here to announce today our intentions to work together to develop a plan that will develop and implement a town department, Paolucci said. `The board of the Shenendehowa Senior Citizens has unanimously agreed to partner with us in this endeavor to develop this plan that will transfer the responsibility of providing services to residents here in town.`
According to a 2004 budget, the most recent information available at town hall, the senior center spent approximately $300,000 in 2004. Clifton Park contributed about $130,000 of that from budgeted town funds, with the rest coming from a combination of grants, contributions, and fundraisers.
Karl Siverling, the president of the senior center board, said that this partnership was not prompted by a financial problem.
`We see the need to begin to look at this next step in order to develop better programming, better services, going forward for our membership,` Siverling said. `The center right now is in a very strong financial position.`
Paolucci said that the plan will not increase the burden to Clifton Park taxpayers. Instead, he hopes the consolidation of resources created by the partnership will significantly reduce any additional costs associated with the town department.
`When we look at this, we think there are going to be certain efficiencies, and in effect there will be a shift to the town government,` Paolucci said. `It’s hard to get into the details because we haven’t gotten to that level yet. What we think, with the efficiencies, we can come in around the same or a little more than we’re spending right now. It will not increase taxes.`
The town plans to form an eight-person committee to work out the details of the transition, with four town employees and four seniors at the center participating. Paolucci said that discussions first started in August when the senior center’s finance committee created a five-year budget plan.
`During these meetings, the finance committee communicated to me that usually reliable funding mechanisms for senior programming were becoming more scarce,` Paolucci said. `This was putting significant pressure on the board’s ability to plan for continued levels of service for all seniors.`
As of the 2000 census, approximately 14 percent of Clifton Park’s 33,000 residents were older than 60. Since 18 percent of residents in 2000 were between the ages of 45 and 54, demand for senior services in town is expected to grow in the near future.
`During my time as liaison, I have worked with our partners on the senior board to expand the space here at the center by almost 70 percent a few years ago,` Paolucci said. `We also doubled the capacity of the senior transportation service that we have.`
Supervisor Phil Barrett, who is also on the Republican ticket for re-election, said that the town has always had a great working relationship with the senior board.
`Within those partnerships, you can be more efficient, you can save taxpayers money, and if we can do that we’re certainly going to do that, but not at the cost of delivering services to seniors,` Barrett said. `They’ve got the people, they’ve got the heart. We’ve got to make sure that going forward they always have the funds.`
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