But the event wasn’t to mark the nation’s founding. Instead, the senior meal site put an exclamation point on its decision to break away from the Dickinson Iron Community Service Agency, better known as DICSA.

“We feel we can do a better job,” said Ray Hamm, vice-chair of the Sagola Township Senior Center council.

Last week, the Dickinson County Board authorized another $25,000 for the Sagola center, in addition to the $28,000 originally included in the 2025 budget, while cutting DICSA’s amount by $15,000 for the fourth quarter.

DICSA Executive Director Kristin Sommerfeld called the board’s decision “disappointing.”

The Sagola Township Senior Center council owns the building at 212 Sagola Ave. where it serves meals Tuesdays through Thursdays. (Betsy Bloom/Daily News photo)

For decades, DICSA has been the area agency that oversaw congregate senior meal sites in the two counties, funded in Dickinson County through a levy voters last approved in February 2024. DICSA provided its affiliates with cooks and supplies for preparing food on site.

But in 2016, Norway separated from the DICSA senior meals program. Then in May, the Tri-Township Senior Center in Felch that also serves Breen and West Branch ended its association with DICSA.

Sagola council members have acknowledged being inspired by Felch’s move, even meeting with Felch meal site management to discuss details. Indeed, Sagola Township invited Felch, which it borders in north Dickinson County, to be part of the July 3 picnic.

While Sagola initially planned to go solo June 26, it moved up that date by two days after DICSA on June 20 fired the site’s cook, who had told the council she’d remain in Sagola after the split.

The site has no regrets so far, council members said. In fact, attendance on most days — Sagola serves on Tuesdays through Thursdays — has risen since making the switch.

“When it comes down to it,” Hamm said, “the township supports us.”

Funding for senior centers

Dickinson County’s senior millage of 0.4 mills, or 40 cents per $1,000 of taxable value, generated $496,000 in 2025. The county board at budget time allocated $300,000 to DICSA, $60,000 each to Norway-Vulcan senior center and the Crystal Lake Activity Center in Iron Mountain, $36,000 for Breen Center in Kingsford, $28,000 for Sagola Township and $12,000 for Felch. Norway-Vulcan also gets support from a levy of 0.5 mills, or 50 cents per $1,000 of taxable value, from the city of Norway and Norway and Waucedah townships.

After the Felch Township site severed ties with DICSA in May, the Tri-Township Senior Center council successfully sought another $20,000 from the county board.

Watching how that played out, the Sagola site council invited Dickinson County Controller/Administrator Brian Bousley and county board members Victoria Jakel and Peter Swanson to visit the senior center just before they officially started on their own.

They showed county officials a list of food and equipment DICSA wanted Sagola to send back or purchase if it severed ties. But senior council members argued DICSA had used taxpayer funding for the materials and therefore was not owner but purchasing agent for those supplies.

“It wasn’t their money to begin with; it’s our money,” said Wally Townsend, a senior center trustee.

Noting the council also fully owns the senior center building, they had the locks changed and declared DICSA had no right to enter the premises.

To avoid any further showdown, Bousley agreed to have the county pay the $1,677.41 in expenses on DICSA’s list. The Sagola Senior Center began solo operations June 24.

By the time the Sagola request came before the full county board last week, commissioners unanimously approved the additional funding without discussion.

“We’re familiar with what went on there,” board Chair Dan Harrington said.

Commissioner Joe Stevens said in light of this year’s developments, the board needs to reevaluate all of the senior centers in the next round of budgeting.

“We need to do a deep dive into their funding and analyze all of them,” Stevens said.

DICSA’s response

Sommerfeld said she looks forward to making DICSA’s case to the board in the next round of budgeting, helping them understand the services and assistance the agency provides with the funding.

DICSA does home-delivered meals and other programs for seniors, including in-home services, transportation and support for the Family Ties adult day care center.

It still prepares about 190 senior meals a day for homebound seniors in the commercial kitchen that opened in 2022, Sommerfeld said. Most go to Dickinson County residents, but some also are delivered in Crystal Falls area, she said.

Both Felch and Sagola senior site officials cited DICSA’s use of a Minnesota-based service, Mom’s Meals, as one reason for making the break. The frozen Mom’s Meals arrive at homes once a week through the mail, so that system lacks the regular contact that delivery volunteers make with those seniors, they said.

“The important part was the contact,” Hamm said.

Sommerfeld acknowledged some Meals on Wheels are being handled through Mom’s Meals, including to all of the homebound seniors in the Felch area. But only one of the five Meals on Wheels recipients in the Sagola area is on the Mom’s Meals plan, by choice, she said.

“Our grant funder approves of the use of Mom’s Meals and recommends using that service when regular delivery is neither geographically feasible nor fiscally responsible,” Sommerfeld stated in an email. DICSA’s grant provider is the Upper Peninsula Commission for Area Progress, or UPCAP.

DICSA still coordinate the service, pays for the meals and provides regular telephone contact with each meal recipient, she added.

Sagola’s decision leaves only the Breen Senior Center in Dickinson County and the Amasa Senior Center and Iron River Senior Center in Iron County still hosting congregate meals connected to DICSA. The Crystal Falls site in Iron County has been operating on its own for some time.

But Sommerfeld emphasized that DICSA “remains committed to serving our most vulnerable seniors through the home-delivered meal program.”

Wanting independence

Both Sagola and Felch senior center officials stated they chafed under DICSA’s oversight, especially in terms of what they should serve. Having dessert, for example, was a point of contention. Both sites also operate a salad bar and try to offer soup daily, which they said DICSA discouraged.

“We’re being told, ‘We want bread, soup, dessert,” said Steve Reece, chair of the Sagola Township Senior Center council.

The cook knows who is on restricted diets, they added, and freezes leftover supplies to make “damn good soup.”

Sommerfeld said DICSA must meet certain requirements for providing healthy and nutritious meals for seniors.

“DICSA is mandated to follow dietary guidelines set forth by the USDA Dietary Guidelines for Americans and the ACLS Bureau Nutrition Standards,” she wrote in an email response. “We are required to have every menu approved by a registered dietician (or an individual who is dietitian registration eligible).”

It was a matter of economics as well, she added. “It costs more money to provide those items,” she explained. Meanwhile, what the Sagola site was taking in had not kept pace in the past year with the increasing costs for supplies.

“In order to control the budget,” she said, “we had to ask staff to cut back on the extras.”

DICSA, too, can only ask for a suggested donation for the meals to help cover expenses, while independent centers can charge participants for meals.

Sommerfeld said the move in Felch and Sagola to become independent reflects a generational shift among seniors.

“Congregate meal programs are declining nationwide as the newer generation of older adults are less drawn to the traditional senior center model,” she wrote in the email. “With Sagola and Felch going on their own, they are able to establish their own rules, if any, outside of the many guidelines that DICSA has no choice but to enforce.”

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Betsy Bloom can be reached at 906-774-2772, ext. 85240, or bbloom@ironmountaiindailynews.com.