After almost two hours of discussion, the Mountlake Terrace City Council agreed to continue its consideration of the city-owned Mickey Corso Community Clubhouse lease agreement with Edmonds Waterfront Center into January. 

At its Dec. 21 meeting, the council heard  from Edmonds Waterfront Center (EWC) CEO Daniel Johnson, Director of the Lake Ballinger Center (LBC) — formerly The Mountlake Terrace Community Senior Center, Elizabeth Zeller and Recreation and Parks Director Jeff Betz regarding the senior center’s  situation at the clubhouse  and EWC’s intent to provide services there. 

EWC is the new name for the nonprofit Edmonds Senior Center, founded in 1967. It wishes to continue the senior services provided by the Mountlake Terrace Seniors Group.

The Mountlake Terrace Seniors Group (MTSG) cannot renew its lease with the city, leaving the facility available and the seniors of Mountlake Terrace without a place to gather and receive needed services. 

Despite some challenges, the group was able to continue for the first six years until the COVID-19 pandemic and the resulting restrictions. Betz said the pandemic “gutted a lot of recreation programming around the country and around the world, really.”

He explained that MTSG suffered massive losses to its membership, board members and budget. During that time, the group reached out to find partners, one of which was EWC. 

The seniors group’s current lease expires on Dec. 31, 2023. It was for two, five-year terms for a total of 10 years.

The new lease agreement is a partnership with the EWC, which would join the MTSG to provide programming at the Mickey Corso Clubhouse.

The proposed new lease is a five-year agreement with a single five-year extension option at $10 and any leasehold excise taxes paid annually. It also includes rental forgiveness for MTSG from June through the end of December, totaling $10,500.

The accrued debt is due to the end of the rent moratorium put in place during the pandemic, the lack of revenue, and the dwindling federal CARES Act funding.

Further, it includes 100 city use hours per year, an increase from the previous lease agreement. Also, the site is still open to the public for programs and rentals. 

“So, anybody, whether you’re a Mountlake Terrace resident or Edmonds or Shoreline or wherever you’re from, you can come [and] use the building,” Betz said. “It doesn’t matter your age; all ages are welcome.”

Mickey Corso Community Clubhouse is located at Ballinger Park and was the clubhouse when it was a golf course. The MTSG started its initial five-year lease in 2013. As Betz explained to the council, they used to operate out of a small area in a church, and the site was a needed and welcomed expansion. 

Betz also mentioned a fact he forgot from a presentation he gave on the lease during the  Dec. 14 city council meeting. Senior programming is one of the priorities outlined in the Recreational Park Open Space (RPOS) master plan.

“That’s something that we do not do very well, (to) be candid,” Betz said. “It was one of the weaknesses that were outlined (in the master plan), and it was outlined in that as well, that the Mountlake Terrace Seniors Group does tackle that.”

He further explained that senior programming has not had much time dedicated to it because the city doesn’t have the space or the resources needed for that kind of program.

Johnson explained the timeline of events that brought the Edmonds Waterfront Center to Lake Ballinger in Mountlake Terrace. The same thing that decimated MTSG’s funding and membership levels — COVID-19 — also held back the construction of the waterfront center in Edmonds.

When the South County Senior Center, later named the Edmonds Senior Center (ESC), was formed in 1967, it started out of a building meant for small boat storage. Johnson explained that the building had “a lot of the small mom-and-pop operations that went out of business.”

The property owner allowed the ESC to operate out of the building for almost 50 years until it “outlived its usefulness” and needed to be replaced.

The City of Edmonds did not have the money to construct a new building, so the ESC approached the Edmonds City Council with a proposal to extend a long-term lease in exchange for community members raising the money to build a new center.

The City of Edmonds agreed, and in the end, the total amount raised was $17 million. The old senior center building was demolished,but Waterfront Center construction was delayed due to pandemic restrictions. As a result, EWC brought its programming to the Mickey Corso Clubhouse, which became the group’s central location. The Edmonds Waterfront Center worked with 15 different sites to accommodate seniors until the new center opened on April 12, 2022.

Johnson stressed that EWC wanted to be more than just another senior center; it wanted to be a multigenerational center. “For our mission, and that’s in our bylaws, and that hasn’t changed, but the research was clear that those who thrive as seniors have people of different ages in their lives,” Johnson said. “We wanted to create a multigenerational, multicultural center.”

ECW’s calendar shows events such as Prenatal and Baby and Me Yoga, No Fear Water Coloring, and a writer’s roundtable. They also offer family memberships.

ECW’s bylaws also state they are committed to supporting other senior centers and nonprofits in the community. Johnson explained that after discussing different strategies to reenergize the senior program in Mountlake Terrace, EWC committed to moving three programs: Friday’s ballroom dancing with live music, line dancing and the Monday duplicate bridge game.

The fact the two locations were about four miles from each other eased the transition. The shift in location coincided with a negotiated agreement between Zeller and Homage, which provides meals for 11 different centers in Snohomish County. Johnson said that the food delivery services and group dinners served as important nutrition and critical social connections, especially during the pandemic.

Johnson told the council that the program has expanded from 30 meals to 40 meals delivered three times a week to the Lake Ballinger Center. Zeller has been working without pay, and most of MLTSG’s board have resigned. EWC was able to step in and reconstitute the board from a subcommittee of the EWC board to ensure the Lake Ballinger Center received its county funding, which is $23,000 per year.

“What this lease contemplates is sort of formalizing this agreement and allowing us to continue to support,” Johnson said. “Ensuring that…you maintain the identity here and all resources that are raised for this center remain here.”

Further, Johnson said EWC raised $50,000 from local families to support the Lake Ballinger Center “because they believed in this vision of sort of restarting, rebooting the senior center.” 

Elizabeth Zeller started as a volunteer with the Curbside Food Program during the pandemic. She found the experience of working with the community “absolutely addictive,” even if only through the cracked window of a car door.

During that time, MLTSG had one full-time and one part-time employee . Zeller said that despite the services they could safely provide outdoors, MLTSG struggled to reopen in part due to board members’ illnesses and resignations.

“And then, yes, I was the last person standing,” Zeller said. 

The center has served as a lifeline to providing food to seniors during and after COVID-19 restrictions. Zeller said that seniors became isolated during the pandemic, which was partly why they brought back the center’s congregate meal program, which had an awkward start.

“People didn’t know how to talk to each other over lunch anymore,” Zeller said. “We brought back a lot of social activities and people in the building.”

She explained there had been a lot of cross-generational interaction between members and about half a dozen high school students who worked with MLTSG over the summer as volunteers.

On Veterans Day, EWC and MLTSG hosted a congregate lunch, which 99-year-old WWII vet Roy Wagner and a 93-year-old Korean War veteran and POW attended.

“For a lot of people, we didn’t realize how much they were dependent on (the senior center) for that food,” Zeller said. “Those meals that we provide for some people, that is their meal that day.” The chef prepared enough food for most people to leave with the to-go box so they would have some dinner.

Councilmembers had several questions, including what will happen to the unpaid, last person standing, Zeller.

Johnson said that Zeller would become a staff member for the EWC and be eligible for health benefits and staff training in the first week of January 2024.

Councilmember Laura Sonmore asked about transportation availability for seniors.

Johnson responded that transportation is always an issue. EWC has two buses; one seats 15 passengers, and the other seats 24.

“Currently, we don’t have a program that goes out and picks people up,” Johnson explained. “We really encourage people to drive with a friend.”

Sonmore also asked about a business plan. Johnson replied that the center would be eligible for several possible grants for over $2 million and that the Mickey Corso Clubhouse has the added revenue stream of renting space.

Councilmember Erin Murray expressed concern over having a lease agreement before the council but with no deliverables promised in return for the discounted rent or a termination clause if expectations are unmet.

“For me, the question is not, ‘Do we support our seniors?’ I think it’s ‘how do we support our seniors?’” Murray said.

Another factor that Murray brought up is the loss of potential revenue, especially when the City of Mountlake Terrace faces large expenditures with the upcoming Comprehensive Plan and the recent goal of approving regionally competitive wages for city staff.

“I still would like to understand hard costs as well as perhaps lost opportunity cost,” Murray said. “And … what is the value of what’s being brought into our community by moving forward with this.”

Mayor Kyoko Matsumoto Wright expressed concern about the center’s branding and what will be done to bring in more Mountlake Terrace residents rather than being an Edmonds center in Mountlake Terrace.

Johnson and Zeller explained the center is still called the Lake Ballinger Center and is run by the Mountlake Terrace Seniors Group, doing business as the Lake Ballinger Center.

Murray asked if it would be possible to separate the lease from the debt forgiveness so that it could be voted on during the session. City Manager Jeff Niten explained that separating the two aspects would mean repeating the process. The holdover agreement allows the group to stay in the building despite the lease expiring, which means that they are responsible for rent during the lease expiration until it is resolved.

Further, Niten said that a lease connected to a program agreement is difficult to draft and must be flexible because it needs change.

Councilmember Steve Woodard moved to authorize Niten to sign the lease agreement, which Councilmember Rick Ryan seconded.

Murray rebutted, stating that contracts and words matter. “I think the things that we have heard tonight are positive and would be enriching to our community,” Murray said. “If we don’t get those in writing, we don’t have any recourse if that’s not what happens.”

She continued by explaining that she doesn’t think the current lease protects the city in the way it should be protected.

“Essentially, we are giving them a lease for $10 a year if they go a totally different route; we don’t have a lot of recourse,” Murray explained. “It is not very specific, and there’s no out if we don’t like what they do for the next five years.”

She said she intended to avoid challenges in the future, “where again, because we didn’t spell it out upfront, we are creating hardship and issues and bad feelings that I think we could just get clarity on it right up front.

Murray concluded she would not support voting for the lease agreement, stating, “I will vote “nay.”

Ryan echoed Murray’s concern about the lack of an escape clause. However, he quoted a question asked by Woodward during the meeting, “Are we in the senior center business as a city?”

He said he would support the idea, stating he felt the center was in capable hands.

Sonmore, despite being in favor of the proposal, said she would vote no until her colleague’s questions could be answered.

Despite having introduced the motion, Woodard agreed that there should be information presented in writing and voted no due to the lack of documentation provided.

Mayor Kyoko Matsumoto Wright, who was attending remotely, said she wanted extra time.

“If I vote no, I don’t want people to think that I’m against the seniors,” Wright said. “There are certain things that I want to see, and I want to talk to the city manager.”

“I just need to mull over a couple of things, and so I’m just not ready tonight to vote the way that I really want to,” she continued.

Woodard then moved to withdraw his motion, which Ryan seconded.

A continuation of the discussion was tentatively scheduled for Jan. 18, 2024.

You can read more about other actions taken at the Dec. 21 council meeting here.

— By Rick Sinnett