Saugus Senior Center kept afloat with $200G grant

SAUGUS – Dick Barry, chairman of the Council on Aging breathed a sigh of relief he’d been holding for nearly three days when a $200,000 grant for the Senior Center materialized.Each year the Senior Center along with the Youth and Recreation Department play a waiting game to see if specific grants earmarked for their departments appear.”We were getting a little nervous,” Barry admitted. “As of July 1 the town had nothing in its coffers for us.”The town cut the center and the Youth and Recreation Department loose two years ago due to budget constraints. While the departments are allowed to occupy the town-owned buildings they must function self- sufficiently without any financial help from the town. To do so, both departments rely largely on grants.For the last four years Rep. Mark Falzone (D-Saugus) along with Rep. Kathi-Anne Reinstein (D-Revere) and Senators Thomas McGee (D-Lynn) and Anthony Galluccio (D-Cambridge) have worked to secure the grants that this year include 200,000 for the Senior Center and $100,000 for a substance-abuse prevention program handled through the Youth and Recreation Department.Other grants coming the town’s way include $80,000 for a public partnership program between the town and the YMCA and providing activities, guidance and services, $25,000 for public safety repairs on Essex Street and a share of a new $5.5 million state-wide pool of funds providing school-aid assistance to cities and towns.According to Falzone, all the grants added together along with annual state funding based on state formulas, the town would receive more than $9 million from the commonwealth for the current fiscal year.”We’re very, very pleased,” Barry said. “We’re still open for business.”However, Barry said he would prefer it if the center were back on the town books. In a normal year Barry said the town would budget roughly $175,000 for the center. Combined with the $200,000 grant Barry said they could breath easy.Salaries take up an estimated $240,000 so the grant from the state doesn’t even quite cover that area. The center also provides a lunch program that runs about $250,000 per year. While much of that is subsidized through state and federal grants Barry said those to have taken a hit largely due to the war in Iraq.”We’re still in a sweat,” he said. “With all the food subsidies going to feed soldiers overseas we’ve even taken a hit there.”Barry is quick to praise the delegation for scraping together the funding to keep the center open though.”It doesn’t cover all our costs, we’ll have to hustle, but we’re very pleased,” Barry said. “It will cover most of our payroll.”Falzone said the delegation has worked hard and it will pay dividends for the town.”Together with previous successes, such as enabling Saugus to join the GIC state health insurance program, this state budget will provide welcome financial resources to help take pressure off of the fiscal stress in Saugus to the benefit of town services and property taxpayers,” he said.Galluccio said he felt it was imperative that both the Senior Center and Youth and Recreation remain open.”This budget reflects the focus of our efforts on the substance abuse crisis facing young people and the support of Saugus senior populations,” he said.While both the Senate and House have approved the budget, Governor Deval Patrick must still sign it into law.