FLINT, MI — The city is starting over in its pursuit of funding from a countywide senior services millage and is including the City Council in the process this time.
Council members are being asked to give initial approval to budgets and applications for funding for the Mays Senior and Community Center and the McKinley Center when they meet on Wednesday, Oct. 8.
The move comes after Flint Mayor Sheldon Neeley’s administration requested operating funds for the two buildings from Genesee County earlier this year without the council’s endorsement.
The county’s senior services director recommended against funding for the two centers in March, saying the city’s applications were “incomplete and missing many of the needed documentations,” including evidence of the council’s approval.
Last month, the county Board of Commissioners approved annual agreements for funding with 16 senior centers across the county, including two in Flint, for the fiscal year that started Oct. 1.
But neither the Mays nor the McKinley centers were included in those approvals.
Resolutions on a council committee meeting agenda on Wednesday call for approval of a budget of $132,923 for the McKinley Center and $176,003 for the Mays Center.
The McKinley Center, located on Peer Avenue on Flint’s south side in the 9th Ward, overlooks Thread Lake and borders McKinley Park.
The Mays Center is the former Hasselbring Senior Center on West Home Avenue.
After the city evicted a nonprofit group that operated it under the same name, the group moved to the James E. Kennedy Christian Life Center on West Pierson Road, taking its senior millage funds with it.
The city has continued to operate the Mays Center with general and grant funds, according to Flint officials.
Hasselbring was among the 17 senior centers in the county that received millage funds for annual operations last month.
Another senior center in Flint — the Brennan Senior Center on Pingree Avenue — also received new county funding.
Flint officials have contended senior citizens in the city have been underserved by the millage for the better part of a decade.
County voters renewed a dedicated property tax for senior services by more than a two-to-one margin last August, keeping the 0.68-mill collection in place for 10 years.
Established in 2006, the tax generates more than $8 million annually and helps pay for the operation of senior centers and other targeted programs such as home-delivered meals, in-home personal care, and legal services.
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