Library/Senior Center Follow Up: CASOKY Director, Others Weigh In

Federal or State Funding Docs Earmarking Funds For Senior Center Still Not Discovered

The Edmonson County Public Library, Tech Center, and Senior Center, September 2024.

Darren Doyle, story and photo:
In a follow up to a previous article regarding the Edmonson County Library's decision to not renew their lease with the Edmonson County Senior Center, we have been in correspondence with others with knowledge of the situation, including Executive Director of Community Action of Southern KY (CASOKY) Carla Brown. The Senior Center is run by CASOKY, which in turn is funded through the Barren River Area Development District (BRADD).

We made several calls to Ms. Brown at the time of our original article and did not immediately get a response. We later received a return call from Brown who stated she was in Seattle, Washington for a conference but assured she would email responses to any questions we had.

We received a forwarded email six days later from Leslie Talley, Director of Operations for CASOKY, with Ms. Brown's responses.

The Library's decision has been a source of contention with the Senior Center employees, volunteers, and senior center participants, who claim the intent of the Library/Tech Center/Senior Center was to never be anything else, other than the three entities. Senior Center personnel feel they are being forced out of their home.

The County deeded the full property to the Library in October, 2009 after completion of the project, which was all funded through grants. The Library later entered into a lease agreement with CASOKY for the Senior Center, renewable every three years. Since the Library holds the deed to the property, they can legally do whatever they want with the property. The question for some is, just because they can, should they?

It is well documented that the late N.E. Reed, former Judge/Executive of Edmonson County, intended for the Senior Center to be included in the new Library and Technology Center on Ferguson Street, built in 2008, however, there has been no discovery of any documentation stating that funding received for the project included a Senior Center. It is also unclear exactly when the Senior Center talk became part of the library project discussion.

Rhonda Gipson, a volunteer at the Senior Center, spoke at the most recent public Library Board meeting in opposition of the Library's decision to not renew the lease with the center. She claimed that it was Judge Reed's wishes to keep the Senior Center at the same location forever and that the Library is going against those wishes. She also claimed that Reed and other members of the Edmonson County Fiscal Court secured specific funding for a Senior Center, which was to be included in a Library and Tech Center project.

We have gone through every Fiscal Court meeting minutes from mid 2004 through 2009. While we found two references of a Senior Center, they were in discussion only, and we found no language describing specific funding for a Senior Center.

We found the following references to the project in Edmonson County Fiscal Court minutes within that 5-year period:

• August 8, 2005: County resolution EC05-14-Community Economic Growth Grant, $400K for "an economic development and technology center"
• July 10, 2006: County resolution EC06-27- Agreement with Governor's Office for a local development grant, $500K for "Library Improvements"
• November 19, 2007: No resolution or documentation listed, but the minutes show a resident spoke at the meeting, who was concerned with the amount of money spent for the library project. "Judge Reed explained that the $500,000 will be combined with other funding totaling $1.3 to $1.5 million dollars to construct a new library/tech center/senior center," however, no further documentation or explanation was listed as to the source of the rest of the income
• November 26, 2007: Item I. on the agenda stated the following: "A motion was made by Mag. Edd Rich and seconded by Mag. Tom Wilkerson to authorize Judge Reed as acting agent for the Fiscal Court concerning all services for the construction of the Library/Tech Center/Senior Center building except items that require a bid."
• January 28, 2008: Old business, item B. "Judge Reed reminded the court that the Libary/Tech Center bids were opened on January 24, 2008 at 10:00AM."
• November 7, 2008: Old Business, item IX. A. "Approve Library/Tech Center Appliance-Equipment Purchase:"
  

While there are references to a Senior Center, there is nothing requiring the use of any of the funds received to be used for a Senior Center, despite the fact that Judge Reed intended for it to be housed at the Library at that time. The lot was donated to the county by the City of Brownsville for the purpose of the building.

Library Board Chairman Raymond Durbin told the Edmonson Voice in an earlier interview, that if documentation stating  there were funds received by the county strictly earmarked for a Senior Center-only, the Library would have likely taken another look at their decision. However, searches for those documents through Fiscal Court minutes have not resulted in any specific finds.

The library's position remains the same. They have grown their programs tremendously over the past few years, some up to 400%, according to their participation numbers. They claim their growth requires all the available space they have, which according to their deed, is the entire property, including a small portion that is the Senior Center.

They also say that county taxpayers pay a specific library tax on their property tax bill each year, and that those funds should be used only for library purposes. They also feel that the entity funding the Senior Center, CASOKY, has a responsibility to house the Senior Center as they do their other programs, which is also funded through taxpayer dollars.

We asked CASOKY Director Brown when she was first made aware of the changes to the lease agreement by the Library, which at first, was an increase of rent from 20% of the utilities (approx. $250/mo) to $500/mo.

"On February 2, 2024 we received an email with an updated agreement with proposed increases that we absolutely could not afford," Brown stated. "We forwarded that email to our board representative and County Judge asking for guidance."

Edmonson County Judge Lindsey serves as an ex-officio member of the CASOKY Board.

The Library Board said they by the time they had received a response from Brown two months later, the Library realized that money is not what their true need was, but the space instead. A meeting scheduled with CASOKY, Judge Lindsey, and the Library was set for May 9, 2024.

"Community Action went to the meeting thinking we were going to negotiate the rental terms instead we were told that our lease would not be renewed but we could remain in the building until December 31(st)," Brown stated.

We discovered that CASOKY is currently paying $2,225/mo for local rent for Edmonson County Head Start. We asked Brown if funding was available for that, is it fair to seek similar funding for a Senior Center?

"It was explained by the BRADD representation that the majority of Senior Centers in the state operate with other funding from counties, partnerships, etc.," she replied. "Community Action explained that the program takes a loss each year because grants received are not enough to cover the expenses to operate the Senior Center program. The funding the agency receives is specific to each funding source meaning Head Start funds can only be used for Head Start. Senior Center funds can only be used for senior services. We have three programs that receive federal funds from AmeriCorps Seniors, Foster Grandparent (FGP), Senior Companion (SCP) and Retired Senior Volunteer Program (RSVP). Although these programs receive funds from the same source the funds cannot be commingled. FGP can only be used to support FGP, SCP can only be used to support SCP and RSVP can only support RSVP.  It was also explained that if another place was not located  it was very likely the Seniors in Edmonson County would not receive services. State regulations require specific guidelines for opening or renovating a facility for Senior Centers. Like Head Start, our options in Edmonson County are minimal."

She also explained that the Head Start moved from the Community Center to the Main Street Center, a privately-owned commercial property, because options were limited.

"Most of the Head Start programs pay minimal rent, $1 to $238 per month or are housed in the elementary schools in which we receive non-federal match or in-kind. In comparison, the agency pays $2000 a month towards utilities for our Warren County facility which houses twelve Head Start classrooms, Community Services, the Senior Center, Refugee services, KHBE , and LIHEAP. This facility is over 12,000 ft."

She said CASOKY received a large in-kind donation for the additional expense of rent that could be charged.

In their 2023 annual report, CASOKY showed a total revenue of nearly $21M, with approximately $15M of that coming from federal and state funding. That of course is for the entire 10-county area.

According to their 2022 tax return (form 990) CASOKY listed receipts of over $18M with over $10M being spent on salaries and benefits.

We asked Judge Lindsey if he agreed with the Library's stance that funds received through the county library tax should only be used for library purposes.

"This is a grey area, and a legal discussion for a much higher level than myself," he said. "I will say that I understand Mr. Durbin's thoughts and feelings on the library tax funding and can certainly understand why he has a concern about its usage."

We asked if the county had considered taking an active role in finding a new home for the seniors.

"While this program is funded with State and Federal funding, and it is not a component of local government, we have been and will continue to take an active role in trying to assist in securing a building for the Seniors of our community. It is a challenging task to work within the budget criteria that Community Action has for this program, but we hope to find something that they can make work. We are committed to working with Community Action and our Senior Center in an effort to secure a new home for them."

When asked how he felt that CASOKY had handled the communication with the library during the matter. His response was, "I can't speak on this based on my board position with Community Action."

Lindsey also found no documentation of earmarked funds for a Senior Center, only.

"I have researched multiple years of fiscal court minutes, multiple years of State budgeted appropriations, multiple years of Federal budget appropriations, and spoken to several people involved with the project. At this time, I have been unable to find any funding information specific to the Senior Center. All I can go by is what I can find with legal documentation of the events and deeds involved. Unfortunately, I haven't been able to find any documentation that mentions a permanent home for the Senior Center at the Library, nor that the funding for the building of the Library included funding for the Senior Center as well."

We also spoke to former Brownsville Mayor Tim Houchin, who served during the funding and construction process of the new Library building, which was 2007-2009.

"When N.E. and I started talking about this project, one of the problems was, we didn't have anywhere to build it. We were able to donate the land where it is through myself and the City Council. I thought it was a real need for us," Houchin said.

"N.E. told me he thought he could get some funding for a new library and we both worked on it. We made a lot of trips to a lot of different places to try to get the funding. Then (former State Senator) Richie Sanders got involved and helped make some of that happen, and then we were able to get some money appropriated from Washington through (former U.S. Senator) Jim Bunning."

Houchin said funding for a Senior Center was never documented in appropriations.

"You won't find anything on that because everything discussed was for the Library and Tech Center," Houchin said. "I wish I could tell you there was something in the planning when we started for the Senior Center, but there wasn't."

Houchin said the discussion for the Senior Center came during the construction process of the building when Reed saw there was room there,  at the time, for the seniors.

Former KY Senator Sanders told the Voice that he remembers discussion of the senior center but couldn't recall exactly the language regarding the funding.

"If it had been just the Edmonson County Library at the time trying to get funding, it would not have been successful in my opinion, because the whole time, the dedication and everything was Senior Citizen and Library. They each helped each other," Sanders told the Edmonson Voice.

He explained that grant funding is much more likely to be allocated to communities like Edmonson when multiple agencies join together.

"For small counties, and I can tell you from experience, they're better if they can be united than one going over here and one going over there...Communities that work together and are on the same page, by far, do much better than those that aren't."

Judge Lindsey said he felt that all parties involved should be proactive in trying to find a new home for the Senior Center. At this point, legally, that would seem only to be CASOKY, since the Library has voted on not renewing the lease with CASOKY. Whether or not anyone else gets involved remains to be seen. The Library is making plans to expand their children's programs, which they say have grown the most over the past year.

"This situation needs to be a priority for all involved," Lindsey said. "I don't want the parties involved to wait until the last minute to find a home for our Seniors, and then go into crisis mode to try to put something together. Our Seniors deserve better than that, and they deserve to have a place they can call home. While we are committed to assisting with that process, Community Action is the lead organization for the search."

The Library Board also voted to release the Senior Center from any further rent or utilities beginning in May until the end of their lease, which ends on December 31, 2024.

 "At this time, our concern is for the Seniors and staff in Edmonson County," Director Brown of CASOKY stated.