Keep centers open

I understand that the Parks and Recreation Department is proposing that the new 2010 budget will place additional heavy funding on the existing urban forestry budget for the trees in the city, while eliminating all funds for the senior and youth centers.

While I love the trees, I also love my mom and friends who attend the senior centers. The partial funding from the park department has helped to keep the centers going for many past years. If the funding is stopped, the centers will not be able to continue to function.

Oh well! If the park department decides senior and youth centers are of no value, I guess we can move Mom’s chair under a tree where she can rock while she watches the world go by. She will miss the exercise classes, sports, dances, games, nutrition programs, special events, volunteering and visiting with the friends she made while at the senior center.

Maybe one of the 1,300 other members of her Southside Senior Center or one of the 60 or 70 newly unemployed city senior center staff members will come by to sit in the shade of a beautiful tree to keep her company.

Debbie Kauffman

Spokane