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Contributed commentary by Rita Allsop, Director of Ajax Turner Senior Citizens Center:

Dear members of the Clarksville City Council, my name is Rita Allsop, and I serve as the director of the Ajax Turner Senior Citizens Center. I am writing to you on behalf of the nearly 1,000 members who call this place home, and on behalf of the staff and volunteers who show up every day to make sure they are seen, cared for, and loved.

The Ajax Turner Senior Citizens Center has been part of the fabric of this community for over 60 years. It began in 1963, when a group of senior citizens and local community leaders gathered for a potluck lunch at the First United Methodist Church of Clarksville with a shared conviction: that the seniors of this city deserved a place of their own. Officially chartered in 1965, it became one of the first three senior centers established in the entire state of Tennessee. Since 1983, the Center has operated out of its home at 953 Clark St., growing steadily in the services it provides and the lives it touches.

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Today, the Center offers a remarkable range of programs under one roof. Members can take guitar lessons, study Spanish, paint in the art room, or work in the ceramics studio. They can join a walking club, exercise in the fitness room, or challenge one another in the pool room, which draws players from as far away as Columbia, Tennessee and has earned the support of a donor in California who funds its upkeep entirely. There is karaoke, bingo, chair exercises, computer classes, and ballroom dancing. There is a hair salon. There is a dining room that serves low-cost meals, ensuring that no member goes hungry. And there is an adult day care program for those living with dementia, Alzheimer’s, and other cognitive disabilities, providing not only care for them but respite for the family members who love them.

What does all of this look like on any given day? It looks like a gentleman with Alzheimer’s being asked to dance, taking the floor, and moving to the music while his family stands in the doorway in tears, filming a version of their loved one they had not seen in years. It looks like a group of ladies in the sewing room crafting quilts and neck warmers, then donating every piece to the Salvation Army and the local police department. It looks like ceramic artists whose handmade wreaths and trees raised the funds that kept the Center running through the year. It looks like a woman who walked through our doors with nothing but the clothes on her back, having gone days without bathing, and who returned weeks later clean, smiling, and whole, because our staff gave her the dignity she deserved.

It also looks like this: A city bus driver carries a woman through our front doors after noticing she is in distress. Our director sits beside her, holds her hand, and stays with her until EMS arrives. That woman codes in our lobby and is brought back to life. Months later, after news breaks that the City is pulling our lease, she seeks out our director. She rarely speaks. But she has something to say. “I saw you on TV last night,” she tells her. “Please save the Center. This is our home.”

And it looks like an afternoon in our cafeteria, where a man in his 50s quietly tells the table that his five children will have nothing to eat for the holidays. A homeless man beside him looks up and says, “At least it beats sleeping in your car.” A woman in a wheelchair rolls up and asks if anyone knows of a hotel that could take her in so she will not freeze. Our staff does not debate what falls within their job description. They go out and purchase 35 complete holiday meals for everyone who needs one. They find shelter for the woman in the wheelchair before the evening is over. For some who receive that food, it moves them to tears.

This is the Ajax Turner Senior Citizens Center. Not a program. Not a department. A family.

Our history of independence, our partnership with City

From its founding through decades of growth, the Center operated as a fully independent nonprofit, sustained by the generosity of this community, the United Way, city, state, and federal support, and the tireless work of its volunteers. That independence was a point of pride and a source of strength. It also kept costs low, because the Center’s model was never built on bureaucracy. It was built on people who gave their time freely because they believed in the mission.

Over time, the City of Clarksville became an important and welcome partner. The City owns the building at 953 Clark St., and it contributes substantial funding that the Center relies on to serve its members. We have never hidden that reliance, and we have never taken it for granted. We are grateful for it. The City also appoints seven of our nine board members, a reflection of how deeply the two organizations are intertwined. We have welcomed that involvement because we believe the Center belongs to this entire community, and we want the City to be part of it.

That is why the current situation is so troubling. The City is not proposing to strengthen that partnership. It is proposing to end it, by terminating our lease and transferring operations to the Parks and Recreation Department. We believe that decision, however well-intentioned, will harm the very people it is meant to help, and will cost the taxpayers of Clarksville considerably more in the process.

Fiscal reality: Taxpayers will pay more

The numbers tell a concerning story. Under Fiscal Year 2026, the City allocated approximately $841,000 to support the Center. The City’s proposed budget for taking over operations now stands at approximately $1.3 million, an increase of nearly $460,000, with a significant portion of that increase directed toward public relations and administrative staffing rather than direct services to seniors.

The reason our current model is cost-effective is simple: We rely on dedicated volunteers who give their time because they love this community. Volunteers know the members by name, know their preferences, their health conditions, their families, and their stories. That knowledge is built over years of showing up, and it cannot be transferred in a training manual or replicated by a city employee stepping in on July 1 with no prior connection to the Center or the people it serves. City employees, however capable, would arrive without the relationships, the culture, or the deep operational knowledge that makes this Center work. And without that foundation, the quality of care our members receive will suffer.

There is also a very real consequence this Council should understand: If the City does not reverse course, the Center will have no choice but to seek a new home. We will not abandon the seniors of Clarksville and the surrounding community. Our mission does not end with a lease termination. We will find another location and continue serving our members. But that would mean disruption, relocation costs, and the loss of a facility that has been the Center’s anchor for over four decades. The City should consider carefully whether that outcome serves anyone.

There is also a risk the City has not publicly acknowledged. The Ajax Turner Senior Citizens Center currently holds nonprofit status, which qualifies us for significant grant funding from the state, the federal government, and the United Way. If the City assumes operational control and that status is lost, so are those grants. Clarksville’s taxpayers deserve to know that the transition being proposed could cost them more in direct appropriations and eliminate grant revenue that currently subsidizes our work.

At its core, this is a question of who is better positioned to serve the seniors of this community. The mayor is telling Clarksville, in effect, that the government is here to help. We respectfully disagree with that approach. Private nonprofit organizations like ours are better suited to deliver this kind of care than a city department. We move faster, we build deeper relationships, and we carry far less bureaucratic overhead. We also reduce the City’s liability. When the Center operates independently, the legal and operational risks rest with the nonprofit, not with the City. Taking over operations does not reduce the City’s exposure to those risks. It multiplies them, while also multiplying the cost to taxpayers.

Governance problem the mayor created

The City currently appoints seven of our nine board members, and we have always welcomed that involvement. But three of those seven seats have been vacant for an extended period because the mayor and the Council have simply not filled them. We have asked. We have waited. Those vacancies have left us without the full leadership structure needed to govern effectively. If the concern driving this decision is oversight and accountability, the solution is already within your power: Appoint the board members and provide us leadership we need to carry on our mission effectively in the community.

Health concerns are correctable

The mayor has cited health and safety concerns as the basis for terminating our lease. We take those concerns seriously. A recent inspection did identify certain OSHA-related items that need attention, and we are committed to addressing every one of them. These are routine, correctable findings. No specific, documented health emergency has been presented to this council to justify the extraordinary step of terminating a lease and dismantling an organization that has served this community for over 60 years. We ask this council to demand specificity. Vague concerns should not be sufficient grounds to displace hundreds of vulnerable citizens from the one place they call home.

Plea from our family to yours

We are not asking the City to walk away. We are asking it to be the partner it promised to be. Fill the vacant board seats. Appoint leaders in the community with the background to help our members and our organization. Help us serve our seniors better, together. But please do not take their home.

This Center has stood for over 60 years because this community believed it was worth fighting for. We believe that still. And we are asking you, humbly and urgently, to halt the lease termination, restore our operational authority, and commit to a genuine partnership that serves the seniors of Clarksville without burdening its taxpayers.

The woman in the wheelchair. The man with five children. The gentleman on the dance floor. The lady who came back clean and smiling. They are all still here, waiting to see what you decide. Please choose them.

Rita Allsop