On a warm summer day, about a dozen seniors found themselves enjoying what may be one of their last meals at the Center of Recreation and Education, as Burlington’s senior center programming may end Sept. 30 following a serious round of city budget cuts.
Senior programming for Burlington is held in the Center of Recreation and Education, which is inside the Old North End Community Center on Allen Street. Mayor Emma Mulvaney-Stanak’s budget for fiscal year 2026 seeks to end the lease the city has with the center and cut positions in the Burlington Parks, Recreation & Waterfront Department in an attempt to balance the budget; several of those cut positions are held by those working in the CORE program.
The program includes activities for those 55 and older, including art classes, crochet and a “bone building” exercise program. Some activities are taught by community members and nonprofits, like Age Well, which also provides daily lunches.
“I love the exercise programs,” Aloyse Rowley, a regular CORE attendee, said Wednesday. “But it’s gonna be ending, all of it, and I’m really worried about what I’m gonna do.”
The plan is to transition seniors to the Heineberg Community Senior Center, a nonprofit in Burlington, however it is unclear how planned that transition will be.
Rowley is one of multiple seniors attending CORE who use walkers or other mobility aids. The city pays for seniors to receive rides to and from the center from the Special Services Transportation Agency — a nonprofit dedicated to transportation for Vermonters with transportation challenges. But with the budget cuts, seniors like Rowley will no longer receive free transportation from the city.
“I have trouble walking … and there are some ladies who have it worse than me,” she said. “What they’re doing is just leaving us on our own, which means we’re not gonna be able to go anywhere, which is very bad for our mental health, not to mention our physical health.”
Andrea Viets, executive director of the Heineberg Community Senior Center, said she is unsure whether the city will reinstate SSTA benefits for seniors transitioning to her center.
“That’s a great question, one that I have raised that I do not have an answer for,” she said.
When asked if the city planned to continue paying for the rides of seniors, Burlington Deputy Chief of Staff Joe Magee said he couldn’t “speak to any specifics of what the transition looks like,” but that “we’re certainly focusing on what the needs are that folks have and how the city can assist with that transition and making sure that folks’ needs are being met.”
SSTA is $4 each way, meaning seniors who take the bus to and from their home will pay $8 a day in transportation costs. This adds up to around $40 a week, and up to $2,080 a year.
The city’s transition plan relies heavily on the Heineberg center, to which it provides approximately $85,000 — half their yearly budget — annually. “We’re working on a plan involving the Heinenberg center to figure out where folks can access other services,” Magee said.
The Heineberg center currently serves around 425 seniors, with an additional 100 coming for yearly services like AARP tax aid and vaccination clinics for the flu and Covid-19.
When asked if Heineberg had the capacity for the influx of seniors from CORE programming, Viet said, “Yes and no. The yes part is that we’re not gonna turn people away. The challenging part is that there are some services that folks are accessing currently at CORE, like transportation and daily meals, that we can’t offer.”
Heineberg is currently staffed with three part-time employees.
Daily nutritious meals are crucial to seniors like Rowley, who often struggle with the effort needed to maintain a good diet. Age Well’s meals are vetted by a nutritionist.
“I think meals are very critical to seniors,” Rowley said. “Being one person, it’s very hard to cook and go get all those ingredients at this age. Some gentlemen at the center seem to never have dinner.”
Sarah Carpenter, one of the city councilors who will end up voting on whether to pass Mulvaney-Stanak’s budget, said she was surprised by the cuts.
“The city just received an in-depth report from the council on aging about trying to increase awareness of the needs of our older citizens, including activities. So I was sort of surprised that this was the choice to eliminate as opposed to maybe [a] restructure,” she said
Carpenter is also concerned about the city not fully committing to a transition plan for seniors.
“We didn’t have a lot of transition time, and I think there needs to be a really solid sit-down and get a transition,” she said. “There really wasn’t, and really isn’t at the minute a real transition plan for the older adult activities in the city.”
Magee said the city is working on a transition plan, “and that will include meeting with the seniors who currently access programming through the core center, and figuring out what those next steps look like and how the city can be supportive in that.”
Jen Williams, a senior who has been attending CORE senior programming for years, said the activities help with her mental health.
“My son-in-law told me I couldn’t stay at home all day, all night. So I had to find some place to go,” she said. “Before I came here, I was in and out of the hospital a lot for my mental health. And since I’ve been here, I haven’t been in the hospital.”
“My favorite part of being here is the sewing and the socializing,” she added. “I’ve met a lot of people since I’ve been coming. I’ll miss everybody.”
