Recommendation calls for senior centers to lose funding

The Papan’s Landing, LULAC and East Topeka senior centers each received more than $13,000 in social services funding this year from the City of Topeka, as did Community Action’s Latino Family Development program.

But none of those would get any money next year under a recommendation the city’s mayor and council plan to consider this week outlining specifically how the city would allocate $434,904 in available funding to social service agencies.

Some in the community have spoken critically of that, with city council candidate Christina Valdivia-Alcala telling the council’s social services grant committee this past week that the city would be “cutting out the knees from underneath senior citizens” if it chose not to financially support the senior centers.