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Senior centers and Area Agency on Aging urge continued county support as transportation and waiting lists strain services
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Summary
Representatives from the Geary County Senior Citizens Center, North Central Flint Hills Area Agency on Aging and the Silver Haired Legislature presented the county with funding requests and operational concerns, emphasizing transportation gaps in rural areas, Meals on Wheels expansion and scams targeting older residents.
Sally Jardine, treasurer for Geary County Senior Citizens, and Courtney Coogan, the center’s director, briefed Geary County commissioners on the senior center’s operations and needs. The center is running activities, partnerships and Meals on Wheels; Coogan said staff are exploring route-optimization software to expand on-demand transport into outlying areas such as Milford and to optimize Meals on Wheels routing.
Coogan said the senior center operates a $2 on-demand transportation service Monday through Friday that serves Junction City and Grandview Plaza. She said the center delivers Meals on Wheels to Grandview and can deliver to Milford when requested but that capacity constraints limit rural pickups. “Our services are really special in that they're only $2. And it is on demand,” she said, explaining the center’s role in filling short-notice transportation needs.
Julie Gilbert Walter, executive director of the North Central Flint Hills Area Agency on Aging, requested continued county support and provided the agency’s fiscal-year 2026 request of $28,405, a net decrease of $159 from the prior year after a small correction. Gilbert Walter said the agency’s administrative rate is about 5% and summarized regional demographics: roughly 5,000 Geary County residents are age 60 or older and about 20% of them live alone.
Frank Capello, representing the Silver Haired Legislature, asked for a modest $600 allocation (the figure was the same as a prior request) to support advocacy on seniors’ issues at the state legislature, with an emphasis this year on Medicare expansion.
Area Agency staff and senior-center leaders also emphasized outreach and fraud prevention: agency leaders said they are planning seminars focused on scams and Social Security issues and will take materials to community events. Commissioners and presenters discussed coordination with KDOT and contracted rural transit providers to expand routes into outlying parts of the county.
No vote on funding was recorded; presenters said they would provide newsletters and follow-up materials to the commissioners.
