The Lincoln Indian Center was nearly vacant on a recent weekday morning; few cars in the parking lot, fewer people inside.
But this place once had a stronger heartbeat. “We had a thriving Indian Center,†Marshall Prichard said from a second-floor conference room. “A thriving, active, Native-filled organization.â€
When he served as director in the 1970s — when he helped move the center from downtown to its sprawling new home along Salt Creek, north of Memorial Stadium — this building bustled with the sound of senior diners, hand games and gourd dances, its doors open to those seeking alcohol and drug counseling, housing help and other social services.
Prichard remembers the center drawing more than 150 community members to serve on advisory committees, to help improve its programs.
And it employed at least 100 people.
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“It was very active,†he said. “Morning, noon and night.â€
Now the center has three employees, one of them working part-time.
In the past few months, the center’s board of directors fired its director after finding its finances in shambles. It uncovered unpaid bills that nearly closed its doors. It realized it had broken the trust of the community it’s served for a half-century.
It asked for help, and received it.
But then, last week, the center took another blow, losing a $70,000 government grant that had helped keep its lights on.
The state Department of Health and Human Services told the Indian Center it was no longer an administrator or distribution site for the federal Commodities Supplemental Food Program.
For decades, the center worked with the Food Bank of Lincoln to help feed hundreds of eligible elderly in the area, providing bags of cereal, canned food, cheese and other staples.
Food Bank volunteers would package it all up, and Indian Center staffers would deliver it to dozens of senior centers and homes. It also hosted a monthly pickup at the center on Military Road.
Few of the recipients were Native, but that didn’t matter.
“We were happy to service the entire community, and we were looking forward to continuing that program,†said Georgiana Ausan, the center’s interim executive director.
The grant helped feed seniors, but it also helped the Indian Center, which used the money it made administering the program to pay roughly half of the building’s operating costs, Ausan said.
“It allowed us to keep the building running, keep the heat on, keep the lights running, keep the trash going out,†she said. “It helped us keep the doors open to all of the rest of our community and the programs we’re serving.â€
The state’s decision came as a surprise, but not necessarily a shock, to the center’s leaders.
The state terminated the relationship “due to irregularities in the financial practices and concerns about organizational capacity that have recently come to light,†according to DHHS. Specifically, the center hadn’t submitted the grant’s required paperwork for much of the year.
Ausan and the board had been scrambling to catch up with the reports, and working with the state, she said, so they weren’t expecting the decision.
But they were also getting a clearer view of the overall disarray in the center’s books.
“It was a mess,†Prichard said. “It became increasingly clear to the board that our financial house was in disorder, not just this specific commodities program.â€
At some point earlier in the year, the former director and finance officer had stopped sharing the center’s financial reports with board members, Ausan said. So the board didn’t have a grasp of how much money was coming in, or which bills had been paid.
By the time of the shakeup, it was almost too late.
Prichard, who’d joined the board in the summer, ultimately made the motion to fire the director, he said. The finance director would soon go, too, and the board’s treasurer would resign.
Ausan, who was a board member, was appointed interim director in October. She and the board started digging. They still are.
“We’re trying to figure out what bills do we still owe,†she said. “We discovered we have quite a bit of past-due bills that we need to pay.â€
She estimated the center’s debt at about $140,000. They learned the board’s insurance had lapsed, and the building’s policy was also about to expire. That alone would have forced the center to close.
“That was the immediate bill we needed to take care of,†she said.
They found help. A pair of online fundraisers generated about $7,500. The Lincoln Community Foundation made a donation, as did the Ponca Tribe of Nebraska.
“They helped many Poncas out when there was no other services or support systems for Native people,†said Ponca Chairman Larry Wright Jr. “It’s a fundamental asset to the Lincoln community and we felt obligated to pay back in a small way.â€
The Indian Center found unexpected hope and warmth, too.
The furnace wasn’t working, and its staff and clients suffered through bone-chilling cold last winter, Ausan said. She called Bryant Air Conditioning, Heating, Electrical, & Plumbing for an estimate this fall, and a crew fixed the system for free.
She can still hear the sweet sound of the furnace returning to life, she said. “There was a little bit of a sigh of relief from the community. I had people walk into my office and just burst out crying because they were happy to see the building was still alive.â€
But not out of danger. The center’s leaders and an accountant are still conducting an internal audit, to get a clear view of the financial problems. They’ll report any evidence of impropriety to the police, she said.
They’re also trying to rebuild their relationship with the community, she said. The board has assembled a citizen advisory committee to offer guidance and suggestions, and it’s held two public meetings to provide updates on the center’s situation. A third is planned for Monday.
The public’s trust in the center is broken, she said. They need to repair it.
“I think it’s really important we keep the public aware as much as possible of what’s going on, going forward, and what are we going to do to get out of this mess.â€
The center is still seeking donations, but they can be made to the Lincoln Community Foundation so donors will know their money will be spent appropriately, she said.
It’s also working to transfer its share of the commodities program to the Food Bank, which will assume administration and distribution duties.
“We’d rather the program stay the way it was,†said Scott Young, the Food Bank’s director. “But we see the needs these seniors have.â€
The Food Bank is working out the details of the transition, though recipients shouldn’t notice many changes.
“We’re going to essentially try to do what they’ve been doing and look for ways to see if we can make improvements,†Young said.
The food program had paid for a full-time administrator at the Indian Center, but the board had to cut the position when it lost the grant.
It plans to reapply next year. Until then, Ausan and the board are trying to finish their audit and preserve the services the center still offers, such as its after-school program. And they’ll work to keep the center’s doors open, though it feels a little like flying an airplane while trying to fix it at the same time, Prichard said.
Not easy, but they have no other choice.
“We have a community that thinks this place is important,†he said. “It’s dire, but you know we’ve got a lot of fight left here.â€