Cement Senior Center On Brink of Closure

Shepard, center, visits with participants a the
Cement Senior Center.

Linda Shepard has been serving as site manager of the Cement Senior Center for the last ten years.  With declining attendance and decreasing budgets, she is concerned whether she will have a job in the near future.

Linda met with ASCOG AAA Director Ken Jones on Tuesday to discuss possible cuts coming soon through federal sequestration.  If the cuts are large enough then sites will have to be closed.  The first sites to lose funding will be those serving fewer than 25 meals per day.

On the day of Jones' visit, Cement served only 23 seniors.

Still, Shepard has a plan to save her senior center.  First, she is using local money that has been made available through the Caddo County sales tax to support senior centers.  She will use the money to supplement the Older Americans Act funds received through ASCOG and the Delta Nutrition Program.  

Shepard also met with the seniors in attendance at the site to discuss ways to reach out to the community for support and additional participants.  She already hosts evening community events, like Bingo, to draw more attention to the site.  Soon, she will be inviting local groups to meet at the site to share in the experience and to get the word out.  Shepard wants the community to know what they will lose should the center be forced to shut their doors.

In the mean time, she awaits final word on the cuts that may not come until June.