EASTON, Pa. – Northampton County’s Executive says two county senior centers are set to close due to a lack of money from the state.<\/p>\n
Many local officials are now calling closures of senior centers a statewide problem that must be addressed, or risk more seniors missing out on important services.<\/p>\n
“Our Aging Team continues to grow caregiver support despite the fiscal blow we’ve received,” said Northampton County Executive Tara Zrinski.<\/p>\n
Zrinski says two locations in the county’s senior center network are set to close.<\/p>\n
The locations are Northampton Senior Center on 900 Lincoln Avenue and Lower Nazareth Community Center on 300 Butztown Road.<\/p>\n
Additionally, Zrinski says two other locations that are not county-owned and have previously been receiving support from the county, will no longer receive financial support. However, those locations will remain open.<\/p>\n
Zrinski says Northampton County is facing a nearly $400,000 reduction from the state government in the Area Agency on Aging budget, forcing the county to consolidate its 11 senior center locations.<\/p>\n
“I’m referring specifically to the termination of the reimbursement for desk reviews that the state took away,” said Zrinski.<\/p>\n
Addressing county council on Thursday night, Zrinski says the reviews, based on medical records and documentation, help determine eligibility for long-term care services.<\/p>\n
In a blog, Zrinski says “across Northampton County, these centers are a lifeline for older adults, providing not only meals, but connection, wellness support, and a place to engage with their community and live vibrant, healthy lives. These centers are not luxuries. They are part of the safety net.”<\/p>\n
There is no word on when the locations will close.<\/p>\n
The closings come amid several statewide senior center shutdowns.<\/p>\n
According to the Pennsylvania Association of Area Agencies on Aging, inadequate state budgets have forced senior centers across at least eight counties to close in 2024-2025 and at least a dozen at risk to close in 2025-2026.<\/p>\n
Next month, the agency will hold an advocacy rally in Harrisburg, in an effort to stand up for older Pennsylvanians and prevent more senior centers from closing.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"EASTON, Pa. – Northampton County’s Executive says two county senior centers are set to close due to a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":168899,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[214,153,155,154,434],"class_list":["post-168898","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-bethlehem","tag-_homepage_top_stories","tag-bethlehem","tag-bethlehem-headlines","tag-bethlehem-news","tag-northampton-county"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/168898","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=168898"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/168898\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/168899"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=168898"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=168898"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=168898"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}