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Staff Writer

Wednesday, October 1, 2008

Allegan County commissioners agreed to continue most of the Commission on Aging’s contracts until the end of the year.

The board agreed with a resolution earlier passed by the Commission on Aging, regarding spending the funds collected under the county’s senior millage.

County administrator Rob Sarro introduced the resolution to the board.

“We are on track to approve new contracts at the end of the year,” Sarro said. “This authorizes all these contracts through Dec. 31.”

The contracts are left over from the previous commission on aging, before the commission reorganized it last year.

One exception was the contract with the Allegan County Resource Development Committee Inc. for homemaking services. That contract will be replaced with an expanded contract with Evergreen Commons of Holland, Sarro said.

“The Evergreen Commons contract isn’t new,” Sarro said. “We previously had a contract, but it was limited to a specific geographical area.”

The new contract has Evergreen Commons providing services throughout the county.

Commissioner Max Thiele, who was a member of the original commission on aging, asked about a problem with some contracts.

“If a current contract was for $100,000 and they were supposed to provide 100 units at $1,000 each and they only put out 800 units, will they have the benefit of additional money, even though one or two performance parameters hadn’t been met?” Thiele said.

Jeanne Silbers, director of senior services, said the contracts had been changed, between the one ACRDC had and the new one for Evergreen Commons.

“The change in homemaker services has dealt with that problem,” Silbers said.

Sarro said the new contract would hold whomever had it to the per unit rate.

He defended the original contracts that had been for total amounts. When the millage was starting up, the costs to provide new services weren’t as well known as now.

“In all fairness, without trend analysis to base these on, they would have been coming back to the board every month,” Sarro said.

Another change was that the millage would no longer fund congregant meals, which will now be provided by the Area Agency on Aging.

“I wouldn’t want to reduce service levels, so this reflects that,” Silbers said.

Commissioner Fritz Spreitzer asked if there were likely to be more bidders for the next round of contracts.

“On the next round to be let, are you expecting an increase in the number of providers asking for the funds?” Spreitzer said.

Silbers said she already had more providers who wanted to bid.

Dan Pepper can be reached at This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it or at (269) 673-5534 or (269) 685-5985.