The Schertz Area Senior Center was established in 2010. It is owned by the City of Schertz and managed through a public facility license agreement with the YMCA of Greater San Antonio. The City of Schertz contracted with the YMCA to manage the Schertz Area Senior Center in September 2015 and that contract cost is $145,235 per year. Membership to the Senior Center is open to anyone age 50+ and there are no residency requirements to join. Membership dues are $36 per year or $62 per couple. Membership dues were set by council at the inception of the Senior Center and the YMCA has kept the membership dues the same. The membership dues go to the YMCA to help operate the center. Membership dues netted per year are approximately $40,000.
In 2017 the city funded an $850,000 renovation project to encompass the adjacent Well Med space which added approximately 1,500 sq. ft. of usable space. A group exercise room, a meeting room, and ADA accessible restrooms were developed out of this additional space. A parking lot renovation project to gain more spaces, is budgeted at $50,000 and is planned for FY 19-20 but not yet constructed. Additionally, since the YMCA has taken over the management of the facility, the membership has grown from 399 members to 1,756 members, and the program numbers have grown from 104 activities offered per month to 488 activities offered per month.
The city also funds a congregate meal program where lunch is provided Monday – Friday free of charge for seniors 50+ at a budgeted cost of $114,000 per year (FY18-19 Actual = $102,717.75.) To recoup some of the costs of the meal program, the city applied for federal funds through the Alamo Area Council of Governments (AACOG) that disseminates the federal funding. The federal funds only reimburse meals for participants aged 60+ and those participants have to go through an intake process. The city began receiving reimbursements in September 2019 and so far is reimbursed approximately 12-14% of the city's total cost of the meals per month depending on the number of meals purchased. The city is continuing to collect intake forms for eligible participants and working with AACOG to get our program reassessed each year in hopes that additional funding will be allocated to the Schertz Area Senior Center.
Additional expenses to operate the Senior Center include approximately $3,200 per year for facility maintenance, $3,000 per year for landscaping services, $3,600 per year for water & sewer, and $1,800 for electric service for a total cost to the city of $11,600 per year.
In November 2018 Schertz staff approached City of Cibolo staff about establishing an Interlocal Agreement (ILA) with the City of Cibolo to share the costs of the Schertz Area Senior Center. Schertz and YMCA staff gave a presentation to the Cibolo City Council regarding the Senior Center operations and the membership breakdown. Approximately 20% of the participants in the congregate meal program at that time were residents of the City of Cibolo, thus a $50,000 contribution was proposed as part of the ILA which equated to 20% of the total annual cost of the congregate meal program and the YMCA contract management fee for operation of the Center. The Interlocal Agreement did not come to fruition at that time.
Since that time, the Schertz Area Senior Center has continued to gain in popularity and several group exercise classes have become very popular with the members which has resulted in some attendance caps being initiated in some classes. The attendance caps have caused some members to express concern as to capacity issues and some additional requests to look at expanding the facility in the future. To address the issue of capacity for some classes, the YMCA added an additional class to the schedule at the Schertz Area Senior Center and opened an additional class to Schertz Area Senior Center members at the Cibolo YMCA location. This has alleviated the capacity issues for now but some members have continued to express concern that the continued growth in the area will contribute to more members in the future, and they would like to start the conversation now about future facilities. Thus, the Schertz Area Senior Center Advisory Board passed a resolution at their meeting on November 25, 2019, to ask the City Council to investigate the feasibility of facilities expansion of the Schertz Area Senior Center.
The existing 5-year contract with the YMCA expires September 30, 2020, so a new Request for Proposal (RFP) process will be initiated in the Spring of 2020. In preparation for this RFP process, this operational efficiency evaluation is timely and necessary.
Staff is presenting this update to City Council to inform them of all the facets of the Schertz Area Senior Center operations. While the center has grown in total membership, as well as program membership, staff does not believe we have hit full capacity of the facility yet. A particular group exercise class happens to be very popular due to a popular instructor, but there are other exercise classes available as well that are not at capacity. Additionally, we have not considered expanding operating hours, creating multiple lunch shifts, and/or a number of creative solutions that would expand our ability to maximize the facility space and still provide a quality program for our seniors. Given the cost implications of expanding and/or building a new facility, and given the other many priorities (park maintenance needs, trail development) staff recommends exploring these other operational efficiencies first while also maintaining that planning ahead for growth is a prudent thing to do for the Schertz Area Senior Center and should be explored. |