The Park Ridge Park District and members of the Senior Center are at odds over a proposed agreement that deals with money and the building that seniors have used for 30 years.

The new guidelines ask Senior Services, Inc., a non-profit organization that fundraises for the center, to hand over all money from donations, grants, and fundraising four times a year and send membership dues directly to the park district. The facility is also running a $184,000 deficit, prompting park district officials to reassess programs housed in the building.

At a contentious board meeting last week, where commissioners and seniors sparred, the park district agreed to have a committee re-tune the wording in some of the guidelines and then discuss them with the organization.

Park District officials contend Senior Services, Inc. turned them down when they previously asked to meet and discuss the guidelines. The Senior Center is managed and staffed by the park district, though the group feels it’s in charge, commissioners said.

“Everyone in town knows you are not to go near that building,” said Mary Wynn Ryan, president of the park district board, who also alleged that seniors deny the public from using the facility’s bathrooms.

Regardless of what happens with the organization, the center will continue to offer senior programming, said Executive Director Gayle Mountcastle.

In past years, the group has paid $100,000 to $120,000 to the district for using the space with the help of a city subsidy, membership dues and by dipping into special reserves. But the city cut its funding this year — by roughly $40,000 — and raising money has not been easy, said Carla Owens, chairwoman of the Senior Services board.

Seniors said there is no written guarantee in the proposed guidelines that gives them preferential use of the building if they pay the money. They fear the park district is kicking them out of the space they’ve used for so long and helped renovate.

“I feel like the ship is sailing and it’s sinking and we’re going to be left,” said Barbara Ingolia, a member of the senior center and a Park Ridge resident.

Earlier this year, the board tabled a two-year contract proposed by Senior Services, Inc. as they waited for a new executive director to be appointed. Meanwhile, they passed a resolution assuring seniors they were committed to working with them as they did in the the past. After the new board was seated in May, revised guidelines were sent to non-profit, whose advisory board ultimately rejected the plan.

Mountcastle said she is optimistic the two sides will reach a happy medium.

“We’re looking for ways to shrink the deficit of that operation and define the roles of (Senior Services, Inc.),” Mountcastle said. “It’s just the (past) written agreement appeared to be different than how things were actually operating, so we wanted to clear that up.”