3A
THE DAILY ASTORIAN • FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 18, 2016
Senior meal program in financial crisis Chiropractor found
Nonprofit may
guilty of abusing
have less than
more patients
a year left
By ERICK BENGEL
The Daily Astorian
Columbia Senior Diners, a
nonprofit that serves meals at
the Astoria Senior Center and
brings them to homebound
residents, may have to close
within a year due to a severe
budget shortfall.
Every month, the program
provides more than 550 meals
on site and delivers more than
250 meals within city lim-
its, functioning as a local
Meals on Wheels. Except for
a salaried chef, the business is
all-volunteer.
For clients confined to their
homes — some of whom have
a disability or are recovering
from injury or illness — the
program’s drivers may be the
only human contact they have
that day.
And the home-delivery fea-
ture is also a check-in service:
When a client doesn’t answer
the door, the volunteers notify
a family member or guardian.
But despite its popularity,
Columbia Senior Diners has
not broke even in several years.
The nonprofit is losing about
$1,000 to $2,000 a month, and
has nearly exhausted its once
comfortable reserves, accord-
ing to Board Treasurer Steve
Mills.
“We’ve only got about eight
months, and we’re going to be
out of money,” Mills said.
Established as Loaves &
Fishes in 1973, Columbia
Senior Diners has been a thriv-
Erick Bengel/The Daily Astorian
Columbia Senior Diners provides meals to the Astoria Se-
nior Center as well as seniors in their homes.
ing enterprise at times. Within
the last decade, it took in more
than $100,000 several years in
a row.
But as the cost of food and
other expenses have risen, and
the business saw fewer clients,
revenue began to drop. By
2012, gross receipts had fallen
to about $57,000.
The program relies on an
annual $4,000 grant from the
city, a $6-per-meal charge and
private donations. But “dona-
tions are not terribly large,”
Mills said, “and I think this is
coming to a head.”
‘A critical situation’
Earlier this year, the pro-
gram relocated from the Peace
Lutheran Church on 12th
Street to the newly renovated
senior center, where Colum-
bia Senior Diners leases the
kitchen.
The move grew their cus-
tomer base, and revenue
is expected to return to the
$70,000 range. But the busi-
ness would still have a roughly
$20,000 deficit, Mills said.
The Astoria Senior Center
received a federal block grant,
through the city, of $1.5 mil-
lion for the building remodel.
One of the stipulations is that
the center must provide at
least one meal a day, five days
a week, to seniors.
If Columbia Senior Din-
ers goes under, the center will
have to find a way to fill the gap,
Larry Miller, the center’s execu-
tive director, said.
Many senior center members
show up for activities — line
dancing, say — and stick around
for lunch, he said. Some mem-
bers eat their soup and salad at
the center, then take the main
course home for dinner, he said.
The current board members
— many of whom, like Mills,
are relatively new — acknowl-
edge that the nonprofit has not
monitored expenses as closely
as it should have.
“I think we weren’t really
aware of how bad the situation
was,” Becky Johnson, the board
vice president and secretary,
said. “It’s been a slow bleed, and
now we realize that it’s a critical
situation.”
The business is develop-
ing a logo and marketing strat-
egy while actively looking into
extra grant funding and work-
ing to increase clientele. From
one month to the next, though,
it can be difficult to know how
many customers the business
will have, especially during the
wet winter months.
“I’m afraid, before we can
get the ship turned around, we’re
going to run out of money,”
Mills said, adding, “Unless we
secure additional revenue, we
will not make it through the
year.”
Board President Steve Swen-
son said, “It would be a shame
to see it go away. I’m sure it
would be missed.”
dent injuries, he said.
“They came out of there
feeling worse than when they
went in.”
By KATIE
The chiropractor already
FRANKOWICZ
served around 90 days in
For The Daily Astorian
jail in 2015, according to
Brown, and is still on proba-
A Warrenton chiropractor tion for sexually harassing
convicted in 2014 of harass- eight female patients during
ing eight female patients has appointments dating back to
been found guilty of sexually 2009. It was after this first case
had closed that the
abusing four other
other victims came
patients.
forward and the
A
six-per-
state pressed new
son jury deter-
charges
against
mined Thursday
that Adam Lopez,
Lopez.
61, was guilty of
These
vic-
seven counts of
tims said Lopez
third-degree sex-
touched them and
ual abuse, which
made them touch
are class A misde-
him
sexually
Adam Lopez
meanors. Lopez
during appoint-
will be required to
ments
between
register as a sex offender and 2009 and 2013.
could face as much as one
The state originally
year in jail for each count of charged Lopez with 11
sexual abuse.
counts of third-degree sexual
“It’s really appalling that abuse, but four charges were
it’s only a misdemeanor,” later dropped, one because
said Deputy District Attor- the statute of limitations had
ney Ron Brown, who prose- run out. For a class A misde-
cuted the case.
meanor the statute of limita-
The four female patients tions is four years.
had all come to Lopez seek-
Lopez will be sentenced
ing relief from pain, putting on Dec. 19.
their trust in him to help them
“We’re going to be rec-
feel better as they recovered ommending a substantial jail
from, in some cases, car acci- sentence,” Brown said.
Victims now
number a dozen
‘We’re going to be
recommending a
substantial jail sentence.’
Deputy District Attorney Ron Brown
Yes on 97 campaign will push Legislature to boost taxes
Union-backed
group wants
corporations to
pay ‘fair share’
By PARIS ACHEN
Capital Bureau
PORTLAND — In the
wake of its defeat in passing
a $3 billion corporate sales
tax measure, A Better Ore-
gon announced Thursday it
plans to push for legislation
next year to boost state rev-
enue and increase corporate
income transparency.
During a press confer-
ence Thursday at a Planned
Parenthood in northeast
Portland, the union-backed
coalition, which spon-
sored Measure 97, released
no details about possible
proposals.
Coalition leaders said
the 10-to-15-percent cuts
to state services that Gov.
Kate Brown has said will be
needed to balance the state
budget are unacceptable.
“The issue is our largest
corporations are not paying
their fair share,” said coa-
lition leader Linda Roman,
director of health policy
and government relations
for the Latino Health Coa-
lition. “We cannot continue
to tax working families and
small businesses. That is
just too large of a burden for
Oregonians.”
The messages Thursday
seemed to echo many of the
coalition’s campaign slo-
gans. But coalition leader
Andrea Paluso, executive
director of Family Forward
Oregon, said A Better Ore-
gon is willing to negotiate
with businesses and corpora-
tions that opposed the ballot
measure on a potential reve-
nue package.
Lawmakers have said
they plan to consider a rev-
enue package next year to
help fill a nearly $1.4 billion
revenue shortfall on main-
taining existing services.
Coalition leaders said
they plan to unveil A Bet-
ter Oregon budget in coming
weeks, revenue package pro-
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