While there is a preliminary plan to consolidate senior centers in Butler County, surrounding counties have no such plans.

The proposed plan, which is recommended by the Area Agency on Aging advisory board, has only the center in the Cranberry Township Municipal Center staying open and a proposed new site in the Clearview Mall in Center Township.

The county has 10 centers, three of which are satellite centers. The centers cost about $720,000 annually to run, and they get about 200 people per day.

At the Feb. 25 county commissioners meeting, a few seniors said they were concerned about the consolidation proposal. However, county officials said no decision has been made and the options are still being studied.

Responses from four neighboring counties generally show they have fewer centers than Butler, and they attract more seniors. Here is a look at those counties.

Mercer County

Mercer County has four senior centers in Greenville, Grove City, Sandy Lake and Shenango Valley.

Sam Bellich, CEO of the Mercer County Area Agency on Aging, said it costs about $840,000 annually to run these centers, representing about 25 percent of AAA’s $3.4 million budget.

About 350 people per day come to the centers. However, Bellich said that only 35 to 50 people at each center eat lunch. He said that the overall trend has been for people to move away from visiting the centers for meals but instead come for other activities. In the 1970s, 200 to 250 seniors came to lunch at each center.

“People no longer want to come to a conventional senior center to have lunch,” Bellich said.

The centers also offer health and wellness programs, such as basic exercise, yoga and chronic disease self-management; computer classes, writing groups and support groups.

“It’s the other programs that really, more than anything, have helped the centers,” Bellich said.

The Mercer AAA recently received a grant to build a new senior center. Bellich said this will not be a fifth center, but will be a larger center to replace the old Greenville center.

He said that in the past senior centers were the focal point of AAAs. However, in the past 30 years, in-home care has become the big focus, with 65 percent of the budget going to that service.

Bellich said the county used to have five centers, but one was dropped two years ago.

He said the centers will stay open, but he is not sure if any would need to close in the next few years, especially if numbers go down.

Venango County

Venango County has two main centers, the Scrubgrass Neighborhood Center near Emlenton and the Creekside Center in Oil City. It also has four satellite centers: Pleasantville, Franklin Towers, Cranberry and Utica.

Michelle Tarr, director of the Venango County AAA, said about 15 people attend the two main centers on a daily basis. At the satellites, Franklin Towers gets 45 people on its Wednesday operating day, Cranberry gets 15 on its Monday operating day, Utica gets five on the second and fourth Thursdays of each month, and Pleasantville gets 12 on Thursdays.

The county allocates about $100,000 a year to the Area Agency on Aging, but none of that money goes to cover the expenses of the centers, Tarr said. She could not provide a figure on how much it costs to run the centers.

Tarr said use of the centers has decreased over the years. She said that is because people are working later in life. By the time they retire, she said they really are not as interested in being involved with the senior centers.

Programs at the main centers include lunch, exercise, board games and out-of-center activities. At the satellite centers, lunch is the main attraction and other programs do not happen often.

She said she hopes to maintain the senior centers.

“We’re trying to get the word out about senior centers now,” Tarr said.

Armstrong County

The Area Agency on Aging in Armstrong County operates a dozen senior centers, including two satellite centers, all of which are jointly managed and operated by the county and the Area Agency on Aging.

The program spends $600,000, including $280,000 for staffing costs, and $320,000 on other costs, notably food and programming for seniors, according to Debby Murawski, fiscal officer for the Area Agency on Aging.

Janet Talerico, executive director of the agency, said the county has had no talk of closing centers.

Talerico said a satellite center in Distant, which is open one day per week, serves about 90 visitors, marking the highest daily attendance of any of the centers.

Attendance at the other centers varies, Talerico said.

Each of the centers offers multiple programs that are designed for the needs of the communities they serve, Talerico said. All provide lunch programs.

Lawrence County

The Area Agency on Aging in Lawrence County has two senior centers — one in New Castle and one in Ellwood City.

The Challenges program is administered through Catholic Charities and is independent from Lawrence County. It receives no county funding.

Amy Cervone, the administrator for the program, said it has had about two centers for about 12 years.

“We’ve had no closures or consolidations recently,” she said.

The center in New Castle has 200 to 300 visitors per day, while Ellwood City’s center serves about 50.

Both centers have daily lunch Mondays through Fridays, and offer a variety of other programs, ranging from bingo to those focusing on health and wellness.

Cranberry bureau editor Jeff Forward contributed to this report.