photo by: Chad Lawhorn/Journal-World

The Senior Resource Center for Douglas County, 745 Vermont Street, is pictured on Feb. 17, 2023.

In the wake of their budget discussions earlier this year, Douglas County commissioners are considering making the Senior Resource Center a county organization, and county staff estimates it could result in a $232,000 increase to the nonprofit’s annual budget for personnel.

In the 2025 budget discussions, commissioners tasked the county administration with evaluating the costs and benefits of turning the SRC — which is expected to serve 50,000 people in 20 years — into a county department, and a review of the staff’s findings will take place on Wednesday.

When county leaders were working on the 2025 budget, the SRC made a request for $94,544 in ongoing supplemental funding to support core services, especially the Senior Wheels program that provides transportation for seniors. However, a closer look at the SRC’s overall revenue showed that Douglas County’s annual support for the SRC has been increasing over the last ten years, from 58% in 2015 to 71% in 2024, as stated in a memo in the County Commission’s meeting agenda for Wednesday. This left commissioners wondering about the potential of turning the nonprofit into a county organization, given that the county already provides a consistent and significant amount of funding.

Commissioners did not approve the funding request in the 2025 budget deliberations, but rather decided to begin discussions with SRC leadership and provide a cost-benefit analysis of the nonprofit becoming a county department.

A key factor in the analysis was a recent decision commissioners made to raise county employees’ pay. As the Journal-World reported, commissioners approved a plan to pay employees above regional averages after reviewing a compensation study by human resources group McGrath in October. The study recommends setting salaries at the 70th percentile of local wages, which would be about 20% higher than the median for similar positions in nearby governments.

If the SRC became a county organization, it would align with the county’s new salary ranges. Currently, the SRC has eight administrative and operational staff, some of whom are part-time and others of whom are full-time. It also has five other full-time staff members and nine part-time drivers for the Senior Wheels program.

Executive Director Megan Poindexter told the Journal-World that the transition would help align employee salaries with competitive ranges. County staff analyzed the potential impact of SRC staff becoming county employees, and the estimated impact of this change is an additional $232,000 to the projected 2024 budget for personnel expenses.

“The Senior Resource Center and staff have not been able to have their salaries keep up, and that, as an employer, that’s really hard,” Poindexter said. “I want to be able to compensate them for their expertise, their good work, their hard work and everything that they do.”

“At some point, employees are not going to want to stay with an organization that can never increase their pay, or they may not be able to, because they just can’t continue with an organization that can’t increase their pay,” Poindexter said.

Additionally, county IT staff evaluated SRC operations and found that the addition of an IT support specialist was needed, with an estimated annual cost of $75,000, including benefits.

At this time, county staff noted that it is difficult to know what cost efficiencies could be achieved and what the additional impacts would be if the county moves forward with making the SRC a county department.

In addition to more funding for employee-related costs, Poindexter said another benefit would be the county’s fleet maintenance services, including basic maintenance, repairs and $20,000 to spend on fuel per year. The organization has seven vehicles as a part of the Senior Wheels program, and together, the vehicles provide over 10,000 rides each year.

“The joke that I make with folks is that you’re either a senior or a future senior, and that’s it,” Poindexter said. “So being sure that we’ve got robust services available for seniors is really in all of our best interests.”

The commissioners will not be taking action after the presentation, which is for informational purposes only.

In other business, commissioners will:

* Hear a presentation from Treanor Architects and J.E. Dunn Construction, the design and construction team for the Douglas County Judicial Law Enforcement Center remodel and addition project, as well as for the Doulgas County Public Safety Building during a work session.

The commission authorized a plan to construct the 57,000-square-foot addition on the south side of the JLEC, renovate existing areas within the current building and build the 25,965-square-foot Public Safety Building. The Public Safety Building will be built next to the Douglas County Jail and be the new headquarters for the Douglas County Sheriff’s Office, the 911 dispatch center and the county’s emergency management center.

According to a memo in the agenda, during the presentation, the firms will go over construction document drawings, images and information; anticipated construction phasing for both projects; design and construction schedule updates; construction budget information; and project financing data.

As the Journal-World reported, the last time the team met with county commissioners was in August. They presented ways to trim down the project’s budget – which is currently estimated at $76,765,398 – including by scaling back renovations to public restrooms in the JLEC. There was also a concern with the number of windows in the renovations to the JLEC building.

There will be no action taken by commissioners following the presentation, which is intended for informational purposes only.

* Consider awarding a contract to Bettis Asphalt & Construction Inc. for the replacement of culverts along a section of Route 1061, or East 2200 Road, from North 700 Road to North 900 Road, in the amount of $1,971,515.92.

The project involves replacing four road-crossing culverts, relocating a roadside drainage channel, adding paved shoulders at the North 800 Road intersection, and performing a 2-mile pavement mill and overlay. This work has been coordinated with upcoming improvements planned for the Route 1061 corridor.

* Consider approving a legislative statement in preparation for the 2025 Kansas legislative session, set to begin in January. The statement outlines a set of key priorities and issues that the county plans to share with local legislators as well as lawmakers statewide.

The County Commission’s work session will begin at 4 p.m. Wednesday in the Douglas County Public Works training room at 3755 E. 25th St., and the business meeting will follow at 5:30 p.m. The meeting will also be available via Zoom.