Trombley Retires, United Seniors, Inc. Hires New Director

By VERNON ROBISON

Moapa Valley Progress

United Seniors, Inc. has hired a new Director to manage things at the Overton Senior Center. Long time Director, Chris Trombley, of Overton, is retiring from the position which she has held for the past eight years. Taking her place is Cindy Marino, a relative newcomer to the Moapa Valley.

Marino actually started at the Senior Center earlier this month, working together with Trombley for a time to smooth the transition. She took on the full responsibility of the job last week.

In an interview last week, Marino said that she is looking forward to the new position. “So far I just love it,” she said. “I love the people that I’ve got to meet over the past few weeks. Everyone has been friendly and made me feel comfortable and at home here.”
Marino moved to Overton in June of this year from LaBarge, Wyoming where she had resided for about ten years.

LaBarge is a small town of about 350 people. Marino was involved in the community there, working for the town for nine years. She did everything from grant writing and accounts payable to serving as the court clerk.
“When you work for a small town, you tend to have to fill a lot of different roles,” Marino said. “You just do whatever needs to be done to run the town.”

She said that this experience has uniquely prepared her for the many different functions she will be doing at the Overton Senior Center.
Marino and her husband Mike actually bought their Overton home three years ago with the intention of eventually moving here. When the couple was looking for a place to relocate, Overton kind of stood out to them.
“Overton reminded me of the place where I grew up in Utah,” Marino said. “As you drive through, you have a small town center and then green fields and beautiful scenery. It just felt like home to me.”

Marino comes to the new position at a very dynamic time for the organization. United Seniors is currently working on a major revision to its Memorandum of Understanding with Clark County regarding the future use of the Senior Center building.

County Commissioner Marilyn Kirkpatrick has expressed a desire to expand the use of the building to include more general community and youth programming. These activities would be scheduled during afternoons and evenings when the Senior Center building is less utilized by United Seniors. The prospect of this change in operations has caused concerns and fears for many United Seniors members.

But Marino believes that there is a clear way forward. “There might be some challenges that we have to overcome,” she said. “But I think that everything is workable so that everyone will be happy.”
Though Trombley is officially giving over reigns to Marino this week, she has pledged to stick around until the agreement is finalized with the county. “I’ve been involved with it all along and I am not going to leave the seniors in the lurch,” Trombley said. “I will stick around until things are all ironed out.”

Trombley was hired as Director in 2009, just shortly after the new Overton Senior Center building was opened. She managed the transition of United Seniors from the old Senior Center building, near the Robbin’s Nest Trailer Park, to its new facility.
“One of the big decisions was what to do with that old building,” Trombley said. “We decided to use the entire building for our thrift store operation and that has proven to be crucial for us.”

Before that, the Senior Center Thrift Store was just a small enterprise, operating out of a couple of old trailer buildings in the parking lot of the old Senior Center. After the move, the decision was made to get rid of the trailers and expand the thrift store operation into the larger building. The added fundraising capability that this decision brought to United Seniors quickly became essential.
“That was a very good decision,” Trombley said. “Over the years since then, we have seen steady decreases in our grant funding to run the center. Today, grants cover less than half of our costs.

Fundraising alone would never fill that difference. So we had to fill that gap. Expanding the Thrift Store has done that.”
Trombley lauded the many members of the community for their generosity in donating goods to the Thrift Store. “Sometimes the volume of donations that come in are overwhelming to our volunteers who work there,” Trombley said. “But the valley has always been good to us. And the Thrift Store also fills a need in the community where there are not a lot of retail options to buy clothing and things. So everyone is happy.”

Trombley emphasized that she plans to stay in Overton until the middle of October. She believes that should be enough time to finalize the agreement with the County. Then she plans to say farewell to Moapa Valley.

Trombley will be moving to the little town of Lebanon, Oregon to spend her retirement. She is looking forward to the move.
“It is a beautiful little town,” Trombley said. “It’s up where it is pretty and green. And God waters your lawn for you.”