Ottley hopes for senior center to return to ‘golden years’

Bethany Lange, Herald Reporter
Posted 8/3/18

Ottley selected to direct senior center

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Ottley hopes for senior center to return to ‘golden years’

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EVANSTON — To Aimee Ottley, new director of Uinta Senior Citizens, Inc., the opportunity to serve her community, family and friends is what is important. 

Ottley was born and raised in Evanston and grew up working at the Flying J (her family’s business from the early 1960s until 2001). 

“We grew up working, and working hard, so that’s what I know,” she said.

Ottley came home to Evanston last summer after an 18-year stint in Phoenix, where she did public relations and marketing for newspapers. Tired of the city and the “rat race” that defined her life in Phoenix, Ottley rejoined the community she grew up in and switched careers to begin working as a CNA at the senior center with the goal of eventually becoming a nurse. 

Soon, though, her experience in marketing and public relations opened other doors. Ottley became the senior center’s community liaison, and a year after moving back to Evanston, she has been chosen to be the new executive director for Uinta Senior Citizens, Inc. She began her solo duties July 20. 

Ottley has a long history with the senior center, as she remembers it from when she was a little girl and even knew Patsy Madia and Esther Benn, some of the first senior center directors. 

“I used to go to the senior center when I was a little girl, with one of the very first directors (Patsy Madia),” she said. “… It’s always been near and dear to my heart because I’ve always had elderly family members, whether it be grandparents, aunts, uncles, family friends, that rely on it.” 

Those memories drive her forward in the center’s core mission of preventing premature institutionalization for the elderly and connecting the community that she loves. Ottley cited the senior center’s mission statement to provide “support for elderly people to live more stable, independent and fulfilling lives in our community.”

The senior center offers Meals on Wheels, home health through two nurses and four CNAs (and the center is hiring now), help with personal and medical care and more to help people remain in their homes longer. Uinta Senior Citizens, Inc., also includes senior services in Bridger Valley, Star Valley and Kemmerer. 

The senior center will host an open house for the public beginning at 4 p.m. on Thursday, Sept. 6. Ottley said she hopes representatives of the city, county and other organizations will also be present. 

When asked what she is most looking forward to, Ottley said, “Change. Changing the lives of others. And getting the senior center back to the darling that it once was.”

She commended the six-member board she works with as well as her employees, adding that she hopes to be approachable about anything. 

Ottley doesn’t have an effortless road forward, though. Ottley inherits the vestiges of conflict stretching back to 2016 when then-director Sarah Blakeman began facing accusations of misuse of senior center funds. Since then, Ottley said, the employees of the senior center, particularly Amy Kelly and Barb Bauer, have been working hard to keep the senior center going and growing. 

“When that happened two years ago, all funding was stopped … and they had to keep this place open,” Ottley said, noting they have done a lot of restructuring and work to regain the trust of the federal and state government to win back funding, as well as the trust of the community.

“There’s a lot of eyes on the money,” she said.

Ottley added that Kelly and Bauer had to learn everything with little to no guidance — including food, medical aspects, activities and payroll. She said that neither she nor the community can possibly give Kelly or Bauer enough recognition for the “hard work that they put in to save this place.” In fact, even after retiring, Kelly has said she intends to continue volunteering for the center.

“My success, which I’m absolutely positive will take place, is their success as well,” Ottley said. 

As she heads forward, Ottley’s vision is to return the senior center to its glory days, for example in 2012 when, she said, it was robust and bustling and served a lot of people. She said she intends the programs to grow so that the senior center can make a difference in people’s lives. 

“This is home, and this is where the people I know and love are,” she said.