More Than 2,500 Residents to Lose Service

MONTROSE – Columbine Senior Services will close its doors at the end of June, said Lee Bartlett, director of the Area Agency on Aging for Region 10, which means no communal meals or Meals on Wheels deliveries for four communities unless a replacement is found.

For 30 years, Columbine has served community meals several times a week to about 2,500 seniors in Nucla, Norwood, Montrose, and Delta, and serves about 400 meals to home-bound seniors in those same areas.

Bartlett said the nonprofit company, which receives part of its funding from Region 10, cannot afford to stay in business. He said he is starting this week to meet with the different communities to try and find other organizations to take on providing senior nutrition services in the different locations.

“We are going to talk to folks to let them know officially that Columbine’s going to be leaving,” he said. “No one’s shown an interest yet, but we want to see if organizations are out there because we want not only the meals but to keep the senior centers open.”

Columbine Senior Services has 19 employees, said Columbine operations manager Ron Howard. Those people will be laid off, but Howard said he hopes another company will take over the senior nutrition program and offer jobs to some of those workers.

“Our hope is that our employees would be able to transfer over to a new sponsor,” he said.

Regardless, Columbine Senior Services will cease to exist after June, Howard said.

“It is tough, and we’re disappointed, but we have to go forward and make the best of it,” Howard said.

Senior meal sites and delivery in Gunnison, Telluride, Lake City, and Ouray will not be affected, Bartlett said, because those communities found other ways of funding their senior meals program and don’t rely on government money with “a lot of guidelines and federal strings attached.”

Other communities may have to do the same, he said.

“We are going to take a collaborative approach with communities as to what they want to do serving senior needs,” Bartlett said. “We are looking for partners for future contracts and whether one provider works for one community.”

Region 10 is trying to line up potential senior meal providers, he said, but it’s also up to the communities.

“We want to make sure folks are informed about what’s going on currently and what their options are down the road,” he said.

Meals for seniors at home are prepared and delivered from the same location as the congregate meal, Bartlett said, and those facilities are also important as gathering places for seniors.

“Senior centers are a focal point for folks meeting and where they get information,” he said. “It’s more than just actual meals being served.

“We’re looking for organizations interested in providing nutrition services and we’ll do our best to work with everybody, keeping our senior center concept intact,” he said.

But just getting to the end of June is going to be a struggle, Howard said.

“State funding has decreased, and while federal funding has increased, the cost of doing business has increased,” Howard said. “For the last three years we had cushion funds, but they have been depleted so we have no cash flow to operate on.”

The economy is to blame, Howard said, but the company’s goal is to keep going until their contract is up.

“Anyone that donates to us helps us to keep going and our goal right now is to keep fully going to the end of the grant period,” he said. “We are struggling to keep from cutting services and cutting every cost we possibly can.”

Donations will be appreciated, he said, and he can be reached at 874-7661.

Bartlett encourages anyone interested in senior food service to call him at 249-2436.