Fairbanks Daily News-Miner

A pair of public entities want to team up to assess the quality of life offered to senior citizens in and around Fairbanks.

The Alaska Mental Health Trust Authority and the Fairbanks North Star Borough would split the cost of the $50,000 study. The project would gather information about services available to seniors, investigate what other services seniors want or need, and weigh which ones influence people’s decision to live and stay in Fairbanks in their golden years, according to information provided by the borough.

The information would then be used to develop recommendations about what the community can do to improve the quality of life offered to senior residents.

“Our goal is to understand what services we need and how we can deliver them as a community,” said Kathryn Dodge, the borough’s economic development specialist. “We want to know what’s going on with our current seniors but also, as our residents retire, what’s going to make them choose to stay.”

The proposed project comes amid indications that Fairbanks, and Alaska, is growing older.

A 2004 legislative study, “Aging Adults in Alaska,” found that while the state’s general population is expected to rise by one-third from 2000 to 2025, its senior population could increase by 300 percent.

The Alaska Mental Health Trust Authority’s trustees earlier this winter approved spending $25,000 on the proposed project in Fairbanks, said Luke Lind, a grants administrator for the agency.

Mayor Jim Whitaker is proposing to fully match the trust’s $25,000 grant. His ordinance will be considered for a first reading tonight and could be approved as early as next month.

Whitaker’s ordinance cites an Alaska Department of Health and Social Services report that indicates senior citizens provide significant economic benefits for communities, partly by volunteering at organizations and partly by helping to care for younger families.

Dodge said the borough hopes to craft a strategy from the study that stays in line with strategies identified by the Alaska Commission on Aging.

Contact staff writer Chris Eshleman at 459-7582.