BRINNON — About 40 senior citizens voiced their displeasure Thursday about Olympic Community Action Programs’ decision to shut down the congregate meals program at the end of the month.
Some spoke of attempting to gain local control of the program in the Brinnon area.
At the meeting, OlyCAP Executive Director Tim Hockett said there was only one reason for discontinuing the serving of three meals a week at the Brinnon Community Center at 306144 U.S. Highway 101.
“The only reason that we discontinued service was because of the poor economy,” Hockett said.
“With the number of people using the meal service, it was not sustainable.”
The home delivery program will continue.
The program expects to serve nearly 7,000 fewer meals in 2011 than in 2010, Hockett has said.
Attendees at Thursday’s meeting received some assurances that the meals program could continue under the auspices of the community, though its support is uncertain.
Hearing this, Patsy Wells spoke of the importance of a kitchen permit “because now we can find ways to run the service ourselves.”
Questions were fielded by a panel featuring Hockett, Jefferson County Commissioner David Sullivan, County Administrator Philip Morley, Brinnon Fire Chief Bob Herbst and Brinnon Nutrition Center board member Stan Walter.
Several speakers favored local control of the program.
They said they wanted to allow the local committee to fund and operate the meals program without the help — or what Walter called “interference” — of any outside agency.
“The private sector acts while governments react,” said Joy Baisch, who advocated local control of the meal program.
“We can’t continue to react or we will miss another year of full services, so we need to act now.”
The first step in providing local control is for the county to issue a request for proposals for the operation of the hotel adjacent to the community center, several attendees said.
Morley said, in answer to a question, that preparing such a proposal would take about two months, then amended that to one month.
Sullivan said that the installation of sewer service in downtown Brinnon would stimulate the economy, but that didn’t offer any security to Wanda Falcone.
“We feel like stepchildren down here. The communication has been really poor,” she said.
“If the sewer system goes in, then all of a sudden, the county will see the value of the property and sell out, and we will have no community center.”
Hockett described the thought as a success.
“Most people react only to an action that’s taken,” he said.
“When they see there are multiple points of view that go into making a decision like this, I think it brings a level of understanding.
“It was my purpose to explain that the economy is affecting all of our services, and Brinnon is not alone.”
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Jefferson County Reporter Charlie Bermant can be reached at 360-385-2335 or charlie.bermant@peninsuladailynews.com.
