Board confirms senior center’s finances under investigation

Center has withdrawn $50,000 from reserves just to cover expenses

By Rana Jones, Gazette Reporter
Posted 1/28/25

The Kemmerer Senior Center board of directors met on Monday, Jan. 20, for a special meeting to determine the way forward after the recent turmoil. Now that new director Christy Killian has been …

This item is available in full to subscribers.

Please log in to continue

Log in

Board confirms senior center’s finances under investigation

Center has withdrawn $50,000 from reserves just to cover expenses

Posted

The Kemmerer Senior Center board of directors met on Monday, Jan. 20, for a special meeting to determine the way forward after the recent turmoil. Now that new director Christy Killian has been hired, the center has been deep cleaned from top to bottom and is reopened with new staff and a new head cook Kathy Ferrarini, the board is looking forward to a positive future for the center.

“At our meeting … we, as a board, decided to move forward with an investigation into our finances,” board member Robert Bowen, who also serves as Kemmerer’s mayor, said, “The purpose of the investigation is not to single out any individual or individuals, but to help determine how our center got into the situation it is in and see what policies and procedures we may need to put into place to prevent this situation again in the future. We are hopeful that the investigation will put to rest any accusations or rumors and clear a path to move forward.”

Bowen provided an update on matters and told the Gazette that, over the last several months, the board had to withdraw approximately $50,000 from the center’s reserves in order to meet expenditures. This prompted the vote at last week’s meeting to conduct an investigation.

Vice chair Michelle Muir said she thinks things are now running smoothly with the new staff and she welcomes all seniors to come enjoy the delicious meals. She also agreed with Bowen on the need for a financial investigation, along with the need to move forward.

Board member Bill Price said he thinks one of the mistakes the board had made was in not providing training to the members regarding all of the state and agency requirements. He said they recently held a long training on the reports the center needs to submit and he feels that training was invaluable.

“I am looking forward to more trainings regarding the center’s requirements,” Price said. “We trusted people; mistakes were made, but they were not malicious. Dwelling on the past doesn’t solve problems; we need to learn, correct any problems and move forward.”

The Gazette reached out to the new director of the center, Christy Killian, who chose not to comment.

Senior center board chair Jay Buck and board member Dorothy Murdoch did not respond to the Gazette’s inquiry.