February 11, 2026

Older Adults Press for Answers on Future of Milan Senior Center

Despite freezing temperatures, Milan’s older adults filled city hall Tuesday Feb. 3 and the senior center Wednesday Feb. 4 to seek clarification about the city’s request to Milan Seniors for Healthy Living (MSHL) to come under city control.

The proposal, outlined in the Feb. 3 agenda packet, gives MSHL two options:

1) Dissolve and become part of the city; or 2) vacate the city-owned building and lose the city millage funding. If the nonprofit declines to dissolve, the city plans to launch its own senior program beginning July 1, 2026.

Senior Voices

Residents who spoke during public comment described the many ways the senior center has benefitted their lives.

“Please just let the senior center be the way it is,” one resident said.

“That’s our haven,” said one resident, during the first public comment period. “I look forward to our Tuesday coffee groups. I look forward to the lunches. I even look forward to when the mayor comes down there. I give him hell.”

“The classes are wonderful. Our director is wonderful,” said another resident. “The whole staff is wonderful…. This gives us a place to go where we are happy. It’s important for physical and mental health.”

“How can we partnership to make something work the way it really needs to work to keep the Milan seniors here in Milan, in the building, with the nonprofit and continue on a path to generate better communication?” said Milan resident Mary Ochalek.

“It seems very confusing that the city got rid of the center, told them to find their own way, and then once they spent the time and effort to get grants together, get people together, get everything organized with programming in place, which was a long journey that I’ve had the pleasure of watching, now all of a sudden the city wants them back,” said Beverly Griffor, “…. They are now being asked to turn it back over to people who quite frankly have many other things to deal with and could let the experts handle it.”

“I just feel that we have an amazing program there,” said Marilyn Kettenstock, who called herself the youngest of the seniors. “We have a dynamite program there, with a dynamite director, the staff is dynamite. I don’t know what the benefit is of going back under the direction of the city.… It feels like 10 steps backward to go back under the city when we have an amazing program how it is.”

Some called for all stakeholders to come together to discuss solutions.

“My suggestion’s a public forum, somewhere we can publicly bring the city council and the seniors together,” Danette Talbot said.

Mayor Response

During council discussion, Mayor Ed Kolar said he agrees with 95 percent of the public comment. He said the city’s intent is to improve senior services and strengthen oversight.

Concerns he listed included:

Transparency on how the city millage is being used to benefit seniors.
A large, reserve that has grown from $240,000 to $600,000 the senior center has put aside, which the mayor thinks should go to annual programming.
The difficult negotiations over several years and the breakdown of what he felt was a generous contract in November.
Kolar also believes the townships whose seniors use the center should help support the cost to allow for more services. Kolar’s numbers led him to believe that those who use the center are half city residents and half nonresidents.
Currently, Milan City residents support the center both through the city senior millage and its general fund and also pay into the Monroe and Washtenaw County millages. Kolar thinks city residents should have free membership and meals at The Center since they’re already paying so many taxes.

“We can do more for the seniors if it’s done correctly,” Kolar said. “I’m here for the city taxpayers. I want more services for you. How can I get that done?”

graphic / Karen Lambert
Councilmember Shannon Wayne presented a timeline of negotiations based on the Milan Seniors for Healthy Living Board meeting minutes during Milan’s City Council meeting. The data was put into an infographic with NotebookLM with human oversight.

Council Perspectives

Councilmember Shannon Wayne, a former senior liaison and lifetime senior center member, said the contract review is part of a broader effort to ensure fairness and equity across all city partnerships.

“You can’t understand where you are if you don’t understand where you’ve came from,” Wayne said as she traced the history of the senior center and negotiations (see graph).

Newly Elected Councilmember Marie Gress, who previously worked at the senior center and assisted with past negotiations, said the issue is personally difficult.

Gress said she believes they can change from an independent nonprofit-run senior center to a city-run senior center with minimal to no interruptions. She has raised concerns about financial oversight at the center and a request to employees not to talk to outsiders during negotiations. The senior center’s attorney said that came from him to make sure communication all came through approved channels.

Gress said that if MSHL dissolves, its reserve funding would legally have to go to another nonprofit, and suggested creating a senior fund under the Greater Milan Area Community Foundation.

Councilmember Mary Kerkes, another former senior liaison, said the negotiations have been difficult for years.

“How do you contract with an organization that doesn’t want to work with us? At what point do you say we can’t do it anymore? Is it possible to save the program without the vendor? …. We want to maintain your staff. These are not just great people. They are incredible people. The staff that is there they deserve to continue to work with you.”

Second Public Comment period:

Following the council’s comments the public tone shifted.

“I was astonished by how much this team has put in to make an agreement,” said a resident, adding, “I’m hoping that next month I will hear that everything is hunky dorie.”

A York Township resident apologized to the mayor for her heated comments earlier in the meeting, while emphasizing that she does pay taxes, too, through the Washtenaw County Older Persons Millage.

photography / Karen Lambert
Community residents attended a town hall meeting Feb. 4 at the senior center after learning about the city’s proposal to take control of the Milan Seniors for Healthy Living.

MSHL: Independence Protects the Mission

At a Wednesday luncheon, at the building the city unveiled as a senior center in 1993, Milan Senior Board president James Giordani said they believe the nonprofit model best serves Milan’s seniors. Giordani said having the city in charge puts the senior programming at risk if changing city leaders or budgets lead to altered priorities—something that seniors have seen as each succession of city leaders have had different approaches to their relationship with the senior center.

MSHL was created in May 2010 after a budget shortfall put the city’s senior program at risk.

Guy Conti, an attorney who is offering his services pro bono to help Milan Seniors for Healthy Living, told those in attendance that municipal funding goes up and down.

“If a squeeze comes again to municipalities what kinds of things are the first things to go – policing, fire, public works?” he said, adding that keeping the senior center a nonprofit ensures the mission stays intact.

“When you have a designated nonprofit for seniors that’s all they do,” Conti said.

Conti, who said he came on not to litigate, but to help communicate and ease the situation, said he has more than 20 years experience negotiating leases. He said he has worked previously with Milan City Attorney Steve Mann and expected to be able to help negotiate a contract quickly when he came on in December.

“I was pretty sure if we sat down with the city attorney we’d have something knocked out in an hour,” he said.

However, he said the response he received led him to believe the city had not authorized further negotiations. He said the senior center would like to re-open discussions. He asked for a longer tenant-lease agreement between entities, as the city had requested in prior negotiations.

Compromise

Across both meetings, seniors repeatedly asked for more involvement in the conversation.

“This meeting should have gone on 10 years ago,” one resident said. “Wherever we end up I hope it’s as nice when I look out the window.”

“This facility is perfect – I won’t know what to do if we can’t come to an agreement here,” said another woman. “The city has problems. The world has problems. We can solve our little problems.”

“Everyone says they care about seniors. Prove it. Make a deal and prove it,” said Jes Meingasner, whose grandparents come to the center.

After the luncheon, additional seniors who talked with The Sun Times News also called on the city and the board to come together, stating that since they were so close to an agreement last year they should be able to close the deal.

“Somebody needs to come up with a lease,” said Griffor, whose spouse works for the senior center and who has volunteered there for about a decade.

Board Meeting

Milan Seniors for Healthy Living will hold its next board meeting Feb. 18 at 4:30 p.m. at the senior center. Board Chair Giordani said he loves hard questions and encouraged the public to attend.