“My favorite piece of data, the thing that sticks with me, is women 70 to 74” make up the largest segment of Estes Park’s population, said Suzanna Simpson, management analyst for the Town of Estes Park.
Simpson was speaking of her latest project, comprehensive research, and a report on senior needs in the area. She also had recommendations for the Town Board to consider, including adding the Estes Park Senior Citizen Center, LLC, a local nonprofit that owns the Senior Center, to the Town’s base funding considerations.
The Town of Estes Park Trustees were surprised to hear that 40% of Estes Park’s population is over 65. For the rest of the state, that number is about 16%, she reported at the Feb. 25 Town Board study session.
Through a series of focus group conversations by the Larimer County Office on Aging starting in 2022, the perception is that the broader community does not support seniors, Simpson said. “The specific words used were disregarded, ignored, overlooked, dismissed, invisible, and forgotten.”
In Estes Park, seniors expressed frustration with town leadership and were the most focused of all the study group participants. Overall, seniors are seeking to be appreciated, valued, and, most importantly, respected, she reported.
Senior services used to be a department of the Town, explained Travis Machalek, town administrator. There was a dedicated senior center located in the building just to the south of the Estes Park Museum until 2017, when the Town department was eliminated and there was a “transfer of senior services to the Estes Valley Recreation and Park District,” said Simpson.
A new senior center was planned to be included when the Rec District constructed the Community Center, but those plans fell through. The Senior Center purchased property on Olympian Lane and two years later opened its new center there.
Besides including the Senior Center in yearly base funding, other recommendations for town involvement in senior services include having Trustee Talks at least twice per year at its location at 1870 Olympian Lane, said Simson.
The Town should also request and review an annual report on what other organizations are doing for seniors.
Simpson does not recommend creating a new senior services department within the Town, however. There are numerous local resources that support seniors, including Meals on Wheels, Crossroads Ministry, Via Transportation, Larimer County’s Chore Voucher Program, and more, she said. But centralized information on these resources is recommended.
“I don’t know that there’s one thing in those recommendations that’s more important than the other,” said Simpson in an interview with the Estes Valley Voice.
“I think all those things demonstrate the town’s commitment to serving seniors in one way or another.” With a population so large and diverse, the biggest story she gleaned from the data is that the best thing the Town could do is “not get in the way” of other organizations that seek to provide a variety of services to seniors.
“Not all of those seniors care about going to a senior center. Not all of them want to play pickleball, right?” she said.
Simpson has held the position of management analyst since 2021, after years of education and job promotions while working at the Town since 2013. She earned a bachelor’s and master’s degree in organizational management from Colorado State University, but when she first came to town, she was a high school dropout.
“I got my GED because I had to work and did not go to college,” Simpson said. “I started some community college courses in my 20s, then when I got here, I just decided that I wanted to be more than just from the school of hard knocks.
“I feel like I have a lot to offer, and I really wanted to prove to myself that I could do it.”
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