If Middletown City Council votes later this year for the city to purchase Central Connections, the city’s senior citizens center that is experiencing a financial crisis, it will be the second time Middletown residents have paid for the building and land at 3907 Central Ave.
On Tuesday night, council voted unanimously to allow City Manager Paul Lolli to enter into a lease agreement for Central Connections with the option to purchase the property. The cost of the lease for the remainder of the year is $50 per month, starting Sept. 1, according to the contract.
After that, the city may purchase the property from Middletown Area Senior Citizens Inc., a non-profit, for $1.8 million. The city must exercise the option to purchase before Dec. 31, 2023, according to the lease agreement. Law Director Ben Yoder said the building and property have been appraised at $2.5 million.
Last year, the center held a ribbon-cutting to celebrate the $1.5 million renovations to the building.
Lolli said it will cost the city about $10,000 a month to operate the center: $5,000 in insurance and $5,000 in utilities. He said two staff members, Health Director Jackie Phillips, and Jeri Lewis, community projects coordinator, are operating the center in the interim. They have recruited 10 volunteers to assist in running the center and the city is performing background checks on them, Lolli said.
The city must keep the building in “good order and condition” and is responsible for all cleaning services and snow and ice removal, according to the contract. Lolli said city employees will handle those duties as needed.
So the city could spend more than $40,000 the rest of the year to keep the center open and provide “mission critical services,” according to Lolli, who said about 100 seniors are using the facility daily.
Lolli said if the city didn’t lease the building, it would close immediately.
In 2012, Middletown taxpayers passed a five-year, 1-mill levy to provide or maintain senior services at the Middletown Area Senior Center. Then five years later, a five-year renewal was passed that generated a total of $7 million that paid off the center’s mortgage.
If the city purchases Central Connections with American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) funds, Lolli said the 13 board members have indicated they want to resign. When told that Tuesday night, council member Rodney Muterspaw said: “We want them out.”
The city won’t inherit any of the center’s debt, city officials said.
“We don’t know what debt is out there,” said Ben Yoder, law director.
By Dec. 31, Yoder said, the city will have “a better handle” on the center’s finances.
At one time during the meeting, it appeared Mayor Nicole Condrey would vote against the lease agreement.
“I don’t have enough information,” she told her fellow council members. “There are so many unknowns. I feel uncomfortable.”
Then Muterspaw added: “We know it’s a mess. We didn’t create the mess. I see both sides of it.”
In the last week or so, Lolli said, thanks to city staff, the day-to-day operations at the center have been stabilized.
The goal is for another agency to operate the center, hopefully sometime in 2024, Lolli said. He said the city will take precautions to reduce the risk of the financial struggles repeating.
Last month, Diane Rodgers, executive director of the center, was terminated by the board “for cause” and escorted out of the building by Middletown police, according to Rick Fishbaugh, board president.
Rodgers is under investigation by the Middletown Division of Police and the Ohio Bureau Criminal Investigations regarding finances at the center, according to police Chief David Birk. No criminal charges have been filed and the investigation is ongoing, he said.
The center has temporally closed the café and bar and reduced operating hours, according to an email the Journal-News received from Jim Berry, a board member. On Monday, the center changed its operating hours to 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Monday through Friday with reduced staff, he wrote. The center was open from 8:30 a.m. to 9 p.m. Monday through Friday.
All weekend events have been cancelled.
Berry said the Central Connections board of directors has been “gathering as much data as possible about the financials and the operation of the center” by talking to employees, suppliers, volunteers, and members of Central Connections.
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