Stan Blaz comes to the Metcalf Senior Center in Anaconda every week to play cards with his friends.
“They’re very good about playing cards with us,” Blaz says. “We have a lot of fun playing cards, we play pinochle, and it's just a fun time for us.”
In the main hall of the single-story building, a dozen round plastic folding tables with colorful tablecloths are scattered through the room. There’s also a pool table and games and a small kitchen buffet area.“ It’s important for us,” Blaz says.
The center’s director, Jaycee Jette, says her great-grandmother initially hesitated to visit the space. But when she did, it became an integral part of her life.
“She would come on Tuesdays and Thursdays and have her lunch delivered Monday, Wednesday and Friday,” Jette says. “Eventually she was coming here all five days. She loved the people here.”
It offered Jette’s great-grandmother a place to exercise, eat meals, access transportation, play games and build community.
Advocates for senior centers say these gathering places for seniors play an increasingly vital role for Montana’s aging population. But many centers around the state struggle to fund basic maintenance and upkeep of their facilities.
Since its opening in 1977, the Metcalf Senior Center is largely unchanged. Now, it’s in need of major maintenance and improvements.
“We have things like our oven and stove top, they are original to the building and the plastic knobs got so old and brittle that they started to break,” Jette says.
She says replacing this equipment starts at $30,000, and that’s just one upgrade of many she needs to tackle.
But in rural communities, donations and dues aren’t enough to cover the costly renovations many centers need. Jette recently joined senior advocates to lobby in support of funding for this kind of upkeep for senior centers across the state.
“A lot of the other senior centers that I've talked to have said the same thing: The priority has always been the seniors and their activities and their nutrition. So money has never been dumped into these buildings for maintenance,” Jette said.
Anaconda Republican House Rep. John Fitzpatrick recently proposed legislation to create a $5 million grant program to pay for senior center improvement projects. Should the bill pass, he hopes it alleviates some of the financial strain for building upgrades.
“A lot of these facilities need help with their physical plant or with their equipment,” Fitzpatrick says. “Most of them don't have a very good stream of revenue.”
Donations, membership fees, and grants fund most senior centers. They also receive support from the Montana Area Agencies on Aging, which was created by a federal initiative currently on pause as the Trump administration reviews programs.
Whitehall’s Senior Center President Jim Webster says he’s working hard to find money for their services
“Eighty percent of my time is chasing grants, reading grants. Never having done a grant before in my life, this is an experience,” he says.
Twenty percent of Montana’s population is older than 65, according to the U.S. Census. By 2030, Montana will be one of 10 states with more seniors than people under the age of 18.
Advocates say senior centers provide important services for mental and physical health, especially for those who are isolated or live alone.
According to Margie MacDonald, a lobbyist for Big Sky 55+, Fitzpatrick’s bill may help save the state money in the long run.
“These senior centers play a critical role in the continuum of care for older adults, and they also help keep people out of much more expensive and higher acuity residential settings where it would cost the state of Montana a great deal more to provide care,” MacDonald says.
The senior center funding bill is making its way through the Legislature, and recently passed by the House in a vote of 75 to 24. The Department of Commerce has opposed the bill due to the administrative costs to organize the grants.
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