The numbers are astonishing:

• Butler County has more than 28,000 senior citizen residents, senior being defined as age 60 years and older.

• The county, through its Area Agency on Aging, maintains 10 senior centers countywide, at an annual cost of about $720,000.

• Collectively they serve fewer than 200 seniors, according to AAA Administrator Beth Herold.

That’s not even one percent of the senior population.

That’s unacceptable, plain and simple. An agency with these kinds of numbers is missing the mark.

It should be clear to everyone, most importantly to the Butler County Commissioners who oversee the agency, that immediate changes are needed. It’s distressing to realize an agency that exists to serve the needs of a specific segment of the community doesn’t really know what the needs are — or can’t effectively market its services to them.

To be fair, no other segment of the population has changed as dramatically over the past 30 years as seniors. People are enjoying longer, healthier and more productive golden years. They’re focused on personal fitness, family ties and keeping mentally active. They are no longer the tea-sipping, bridge-playing, waltzing contingent.

And they’re not all Lawrence Welk fans; many are maturing rock ’n’ rollers — today’s 60-year-old was only 14 during the infamous Woodstock festival of 1969.

Herold said this week that the AAA advisory board is considering a consolidation. She said seniors across the county will be surveyed about their preferences.

There’s a tentative plan to concentrate services in two locations — an existing center in the Cranberry Township municipal building and a proposed new site in Clearview Mall in Center Township.

Here’s a better idea. Maintain the Cranberry site, but instead of leasing space in the mall, negotiate with Butler School District for one of the elementary school buildings it’s about to close under a consolidation plan of its own.

There are many good reasons to locate in a former school. Schools come equipped with gymnasiums and kitchen/cafeteria, both necessary for fitness-minded senior citizens. Classrooms are the ideal size for group sessions of all kinds, from art to yoga classes. A health clinic and full-fledged, medically supervised fitness center, locker rooms, games lounge and coffee shop could be included. And schools come with ample parking.

And since many seniors today are actively raising grandchildren, it would make sense to include a secure child care area.

An active aging center could provide regular guest speakers and demonstrations, healthy cooking classes, a house band (for those maturing rock ‘n’ rollers) and a training center for Senior Olympics and other athletic programs geared for the active retiree.

An active senior center could also market itself as a travel center, arranging senior group bus tours to destinations across the region and the continent. Given the popularity of such senior travel programs elsewhere, this could develop quickly into a profit-making venture for the agency.

Such a plan is worth a good look. Keeping the status quo is not. The status quo is a waste of resources — not just in terms of the unused centers, but in the underserved senior citizen population, too.

Just one more suggestion: Any survey should sample the mature population, not just the few who now use the centers, and should include residents aged 55 and older, since the senior centers should keep an eye on the ever-developing needs of tomorrow’s clients as well as today’s.