Southampton senior center seeks town funding as state grants run short

Pete DeSanto, a SHINE counselor at the Southampton Senior Center, told the Select Board on Feb. 19 that demand for Medicare and benefits counseling has surged and that the center’s staffing and outreach are increasingly dependent on short-term grants.

"We are more than just having coffee, playing cards," DeSanto said, summarizing the center’s wide range of social and support services including Medicare counseling, fuel-assistance and housing application help. He added that membership and attendance have climbed more than 20% over the past year.

Why it matters: The center’s outreach worker — who performs home visits and helps residents access benefits — was funded by an FY22 earmark that expires in June. DeSanto said the town is being asked to assume that salary to avoid a gap in services, warning that cutting the outreach hours would be "catastrophic" for people who rely on home visits and benefits navigation.

DeSanto reviewed the center’s funding mix: a state formula grant (allocated by per-resident funding tied to the 2020 census), a FRTA (Franklin Regional Transit Authority) reimbursement for van trips that rose to $35,000 this year, and one-time modernization grants that paid for facility improvements. He said the state formula grant is not guaranteed and often arrives in increments depending on the governor’s budget.

In response to finance committee questions, DeSanto said most programming instructors are volunteers, class fees are nominal and some grant awards are restricted to programming and capital improvements rather than salaries. He requested full town funding of COA salary lines for FY27 and a modest increase in his hours from 32 to 35 per week to reflect workload.

Board members and finance committee participants probed which grants could legally be repurposed to cover staff pay. DeSanto said the $25,000 programming grant already has restrictions that limit its use to programming and improvements; the state formula grant also has limits and cannot reliably be counted on for salaries year to year.

What’s next: The Select Board and Finance Committee will weigh whether to fund permanent salary lines for the senior center in FY27 to avoid service disruption if earmarks and reimbursements lapse.