LUCERNE, Calif. – The Lucerne Alpine Senior Center received some good news last week.
At a meeting on Thursday, March 28, the board of directors for the Area Agency on Aging of Lake and Mendocino Counties voted to overturn a decision made a month before to terminate its provider contract with the center.
That original decision came about after the California Department of Aging determined that the center was a “high risk” nutrition services provider, as Lake County News has reported.
That meant the center was facing the loss of an annual $66,084 contract, of which $60,805 went for nutrition programs and $5,279 for outreach.
However, at the March 28 meeting the AAA board rescinded the contract termination, according to AAA Program Coordinator Mike Parkinson.
Parkinson said the center’s new executive director, Rae Eby-Carl, told the AAA board that the center had addressed all of the health and safety issues, and was continuing to work on fiscal issues and data processing.
On Thursday Parkinson will make a followup monitoring visit to the center to confirm that the changes have been made. If he confirms all corrective actions have been taken, the termination will be rescinded, Parkinson said.
Eby-Carl confirmed that the center is expecting Parkinson’s visit on Thursday. If all goes well, the center will still be able to offer its Meals on Wheels program, which in a seven-month period had served nearly 16,000 meals to area seniors, according to statements at the Feb. 28 AAA meeting.
Initially, the AAA board had indicated a special appeal board was to be assembled to consider the center’s appeal, but Parkinson said that the appeal ended up being heard by the AAA board itself.
Had the contract termination gone forward, the matter ultimately would have gone to the California Department of Aging for a final appeal, said Parkinson.
The senior center is paid on a monthly basis on the contract, he said. There has been no interruption in payments to the center, as the contract was to have terminated on April 5, 30 days after the center received the termination notification by certified mail.
His monitoring visit will take place on April 4. “If everything is OK they will have had a day to spare,” said Parkinson.
Eby-Carl took over as executive director just days after the initial contract termination vote.
“When I had arrived nothing had been done yet, but now all health and safety issues have been dealt with,” she said.
Parkinson credited her with getting a lot done in a short amount of time.
“I’m starting to get a handle on it,” said Eby-Carl.
She said the Lucerne Alpine Senior Center’s employees and volunteers are “a wonderful team” determined to keep a quality nutrition program intact.
Parkinson said hiring Eby-Carl – who has extensive experience with nonprofits – was a “good, progressive move” for the center to make.
He said he was heartened based on his discussions with her about the work she’s committed to doing at the center.
“This is about as good as we could hope for in that short a period of time,” said Parkinson.
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