Senior center fee plan draws member queries

Arkansas Democrat-Gazette/RICK MCFARLAND--08/11/14--    Beulah Tidwell, of North Little Rock, makes comments during a public meeting Monday to discuss a rate increase for members at the Patrick Henry Hays Senior Citizens Center in North Little Rock.
Arkansas Democrat-Gazette/RICK MCFARLAND--08/11/14-- Beulah Tidwell, of North Little Rock, makes comments during a public meeting Monday to discuss a rate increase for members at the Patrick Henry Hays Senior Citizens Center in North Little Rock.

About 50 members of North Little Rock's Patrick Hays Senior Citizens Center attended a public meeting so they could ask questions Monday about a proposed fee increase that would take effect Jan. 1, if approved.

The Hays Senior Center, 401 W. Pershing Blvd., charges $25 annually for members who use the center 8 a.m.-4:30 p.m. weekdays, 9 a.m.-1 p.m. Saturdays and 2-5 p.m. Sundays. Members who pay $130 annually -- mainly those who haven't yet retired --get extended hours of 7 a.m.-8 p.m. weekdays, 7 a.m.-1 p.m. Saturdays and noon-5 p.m. Sundays.

The city's Senior Citizens Commission, which oversees the center's operation, is considering raising those fees to $35 and $150 annually, respectively. The center is open to anyone 50 years of age and older.

No timetable for a decision has been set. Commission members attended Monday's comment session, which lasted less than 40 minutes.

The last increase was in 2007, the year a second phase was completed for the almost 60,000-square-foot center. The center opened in 2003.

Most of those who commented just asked questions about what would change with and without the fee increase and generally didn't speak against the idea.

A woman who commented but didn't give her name said an increase could hurt many retirees who are on a fixed income, with other living costs rising as well.

"Some of us cannot really afford this, but we'll try," she said, calling the center a "big, pretty place."

The increases would help to relieve some of the responsibility of the North Little Rock City Council, which approves city funding for the center's operation, said Charley Baxter, the center's director.

Membership fees account for about 18 percent of the center's $987,000 budget, he said. The center has about 4,000 active members.

About 87 percent of the members pay the $25 fee, Baxter said.

"What is paying for the majority of our operation is the [city's] general fund," Baxter told attendees. "The city is being stressed to find a way to meet all of its budgetary obligations. The dues members are paying don't carry the load. The load is being carried by someone else."

In answer to a question about whether hours could increase with the raised dues or if rental fees for special functions would also go up, Baxter said that both could be looked at in the overall rate structure, but that increasing the hours would also increase the center's costs.

Joe Whalen, a center member and retired marketing researcher, presented a survey of other senior citizen memberships at fitness centers in neighboring Sherwood, Jacksonville and Little Rock that listed their annual membership cost at $120, $180 and $300, respectively, compared with the Hays center's $25 and $130, Whalen said.

Annie McGill, another center member, said that though many retired members are on fixed incomes, she didn't mind having an increase to $35 because the center is kept "clean" and members "get along."

"You can't get anything better than what we get," she said.

Metro on 08/12/2014

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