Park Ridge Senior Center pact eases financial support demands

• Reprints

Updated: November 10, 2011 2:48PM

The Park Ridge Recreation and Park District Board of Commissioners on Sept. 16 voted to ratify a letter of agreement between the Park District and Park Ridge Senior Services, Inc.

The letter, written by Park District attorney Thomas Hoffman to Forest Miles, the attorney representing Senior Services, states that the relationship between the Park District and Senior Services will be “non-contractual and advisory only.” It suggests that Senior Services representatives address the Park Board “semi-annually” with “non-binding advice” regarding the Park Ridge Senior Center.

The letter states that the Park District will conduct and coordinate programs at the Senior Center and “would be pleased to be the recipient of any financial support which might be received from Senior Services, the members of the Senior Center, the Park Ridge Parks Foundation or other sources, to be used to subsidize the operations of the Senior Center.”

The letter supersedes a pending cooperative agreement with Senior Services that would have required the group to turn over all money it raises to the Park District and provide financial reports, as well.

Hoffman said the biggest difference between the cooperative agreement and the letter ratified by the Park Board involves the matter of financial support.

“We are not demanding a certain level of financial support from either body,” he said, referring to Senior Services and the Senior Senate. The Senior Senate consists of Senior Center members who provide feedback to Park District staff.

Ratification of the letter will serve as “setting forth the bases for all parties to move forward in an atmosphere of mutual respect and cooperation,” Hoffman read. He told the Park Board that the attorney for Senior Services had not yet been given authority to sign the letter, though.