On Tuesday afternoon, 84-year-old Marge Holcomb was playing poker with other visitors at the Sparks Senior Center who may soon find themselves in need of a new place to play cards.

More than 100 seniors learned Tuesday afternoon that the Washoe County Senior Services Department is feeling the hurt from the current financial pinch and, as a result, the Sparks Senior Center may be closed because of county-wide budget cuts.

Washoe County Senior Services director Grady Tarbutton said the Sparks Senior Center is only being considered for closure and that its fate is not certain. The roughly $120,000 it takes to operate the center, however, will be on the table as a possible line item to be eliminated.

On March 18, Tarbutton said, there will be a public meeting to discuss cuts the county senior services department must make to its 2010 budget.

“It’s used, people use it and like it very much,” Tarbutton said of the Sparks Senior Center. “It’s a program we want to continue. ... It’s an expense and we have to look at all expenses.”

The Sparks center accommodates 125 to 150 seniors on a regular basis, Tarbutton said.

Washoe County Senior Services operates four facilities — Reno, Sun Valley, Sparks, Gerlach — as well as numerous outreach services for local seniors on a budget of about $4.5 million per year, Tarbutton said. Every service the department offers will be scrutinized, he said, including saving $21,000 a year by moving the Sun Valley center to a county-owned building from a leased facility.

Another option for Sparks, he said, which might keep the facility open, would be to cut afternoon operating hours.

“If this closes, I don’t know what I’m going to do,” 93-year-old Rose Baker said. “I ride on (Access) and don’t know if I’ll be able to get to the Reno center as often as I come here.”

Holcomb, who works in the kitchen at the center and helps to set up rooms for exercise sessions and other activities, said that many people who regularly visit the center don’t have access to transportation to the Reno center.

The employees at the center will be transferred to the Reno center, aside from one full-time administrator and one part-time cook and custodian, who may lose their jobs.

“We’ll work at the Reno center if this one is closed,” social worker Dawn Custa said. “The people who will really be affected are the people who regularly come here. Some people come here to eat lunch every day.”

Recent cuts to the Washoe County budget are behind the possible closing of the center.

“The City of Sparks provides the building and the upkeep of the outside of the building,” Custa said. “Washoe County pays for utilities and the maintenance of the inside of the building, but we rely mostly on volunteers and people doing community service.”

Holcomb said another alternative to closing down the center would be to close the center on the slowest day of the week.

“If we closed on Wednesday, which isn’t as busy, we could save money on costs and maybe keep the center open,” Holcomb said.

While it was suggested that regular visitors to the center go to the Reno center instead, many Sparks residents prefer having a place nearby and described the Sparks facility as “more comfortable.”

“I’ve been coming here for 16 years to play poker,” Dee Oxborrow said. “I like it here better. The tables are better and sometimes it’s too cold in the Reno senior center.”

“Without the center, many of these people will be homebound,” Custa said.

“I’ve volunteered here for 15 years,” Holcomb said. “We depend on this place.”

The meeting will be held at the Reno Senior Center on March 18 at 1 p.m.