Bob Foos
April Cloyd urged a full house at the Webb City Senior Citizens Center on Friday, the last day meals will be served for the foreseeable future, to have patience. “Don’t give up.”
After being closed three days this week, the center will reopen Thursday for regular activities besides the meals.
The city administration allowed the Area Agency on Aging Region X those three days to remove its files and office equipment, two refrigerators and an oven.
Everything else, including the tables, chairs, dishware and most of the kitchen will remain in the city-owned building. The City Council agreed on Monday to buy the new dishwasher and shed for $6,011.
The Senior Citizens Center Advisory Board and the city are making plans to at some point resume serving meals five days a week – and cooking them here. For some time, the meals have been cooked in Joplin and picked up by Cloyd. That has led to complaints about the quality of the food.
City Administrator Carl Francis said the city could probably pay for a part-time manager (without benefits). “We don’t have the capacity to employ more people.”
Offers to volunteer are coming in from individuals and organizations.
Donations are being accepted at Southwest Missouri Bank’s branch at Range Line Road and Zora Street.
It’s not all about the meals.
“Fellowship is the big thing,” Ken Spencer told the city council. He’s the president of the board.
Board member John Joines told the council and staff, “Thank you for your heartfelt involvement.”
Not returning will be Cloyd, the center director, and two other longtime Area Agency on Aging employees, Brenda Higginbotham and Kevin Ballard. A fourth AAA employee was laid off when meal preparation shifted to Joplin.
From her podium through tears Cloyd said she was sad to be calling table numbers (determining which will go first up to the serving line) for the last time Friday.
Starting as a dishwasher, she said, “I never dreamed I would be up in the position I am now.
“I’ve seen a lot of people come and go over the years. I will miss you every day.”
Hopefully, she said she will be back as a volunteer.
“Everybody’s going to have to do their part,” she said. “I won’t be here to pick up after you.”
Regarding the split between AAA and the city, she said, “I feel like a child whose parents are going through a divorce.”
Feelings are hard in this “divorce.”
Mayor Lynn Ragsdale used a stern voice while delivering a message Monday about the surprising way the split came about.
“The timing was so poorly handled,” he said. Rather than let Webb City in on the decision as it was being made, he said he was unaware until the letter stating the center would close was hand delivered on March 24.
For one thing, he said AAA had no authority to close the center. The city owns and maintains the building and pays the utility bills.
He said it was heartbreaking at the center the next day to deliver the news that the AAA would stop providing meals on April 10.
“Tears were everywhere,” he said. He heard from some, “‘That’s the only warm meal I get.’”
“There is no clear or reasonable answer to the question as to why we are the only one of six centers affected,” Ragsdale said.
“The timing is curious. Why were we not brought into the discussion.”
“Not to defend the current action,” but Francis said state funding for the Area Agency on Aging regions “has been stagnant since 2006.”
If the city had known in advance, he said he would have worked for a seamless transition instead of a lapse between meals.
“We will be serving our senior citizens well in Webb City,” pledged Ragsdale, while making a request for better tasting meals when they resume.