Seniors concerned about center funds

Over the Hill Gang spokesman Suzette Edwards took the floor at Tuesday night's meeting of Pine Haven's town council regarding the moving of $6375 from their account to the community center account. This is a donation from Roger Meadows.

At the death of Chrystal Meadows some time ago, her husband, Roger, gave all memorial donations to the "senior center" as stated in the published obituary.

"At that time I heard about the town wanting to start their own senior center and I thought what a good time to make donations to the Pine Haven Senior Center," said Roger. "At that time, I did not know there was a building that was called the community center."

When the seniors moved into the community center some time ago, they were asked not to describe the building as a senior center as it was to be a place for the entire community. Subsequently, the seniors began to use the building on a set schedule under the auspices of the town.

Their governing group, which later became the Over the Hill Gang, was provided their own account under the municipal government, into which the money was deposited.

Meadows, when asked point blank for which entity the funds were intended, advised, "The donation was made to the senior center, you guys will have to hash out what that means."

Mayor Karla Brandenburg stated, "In September 7, 2020, that was known as the senior center. It was never called the community center until we kept kind of forcing everybody to call it the community center."

Chris Bingham challenged the mayor's memory of events, saying, "There is a discrepancy with that because in September, if you look at ledgers, there's a community center and the senior group and you had us make up a name to differentiate us from the community center long before that took place. That's how we ended up having the name – the Over the Hill Gang."

The mayor then asked Town Attorney Pat Carpenter his advice on the situation, "I think it's pretty simple, they were designated for the 'center', whether it's the senior center or the community center, it's for the building. If that's where they're designated, that's where they've got to be used."

Brandenburg admitted the funds were deposited in the wrong account two years ago and this simply, "Wasn't caught until this last budget year and the reason it got caught was that the community center wanted to start putting up donors' names".

She expressed her confusion about the concern over this situation, saying, "You will be included and [the community center board] would like to meet with you to decide how to spend that money. Does that not sound fair? The building's used by you guys, right? I prefer it to be called the community center so everybody knows they can use it, but it is your center and the community center...so, I guess because you guys get to decide how that money will be spent, I'm a little confused on why that's an issue."

The matter was dropped and the funds will remain in the account for the community center.