LAKESIDE — The city doesn’t consider it a rent increase. But no matter what they call it, the Lakeside Senior Center will pay $92 more each month to host senior activities at city facilities.

Kathy Gould, president of the center, said the center’s board will scramble to pay the $242 monthly rent, including putting on an October bazaar.

“That’s a lot to come up with at one time,” Gould said.

The Lakeside City Council approved the rent hike from $150 on Aug. 13. The vote was 5-1, with Mayor Orville Nelson against. The vote echoes a contentious public schism between Nelson and the council over management of the city.

City Councilors Chrysta Swift and Rod Schilling said the center should have been paying about $300 all along, but the rent was reduced nearly two years ago without the council’s consent.

“That was never voted on by the council,” Swift said.

Schilling said the budget committee came up with the $242 figure as a way to pay for utilities and maintenance, while trying to avoid hardship for the center. He noted that the city tried to ease the brunt of the increase by using some city funds, which were split between the center and the library’s reading program. The councilor said the center is subsidized by the city.

“They’re still getting it cheaper than what it costs to have it,” Schilling said. “It’s back to the 1980s rent that they were paying.”

No one seems to be quite sure when the center will need to begin to pay the new fee, but Swift said she doesn’t believe it will be retroactive.

Located at 915 North Lake Road, the center provides games, activities and some services to about 82 seniors, including pinochle, cribbage, blood pressure clinics, and a pontoon boat ride now and again. It also serves lunches on Tuesdays and Thursdays through the South Coast Business Employment Corp. Frozen meals are brought to shut-ins throughout the week.  The nonprofit pays $150 of the rent.

“This is a nutritional program provided by the government though the South Coast Business ... I feel the city should be working with them to provide for the elderly citizens of Lakeside,” Gould said. “The city should bite some of the cost for the two meals a week for their seniors.”

She said about 60 percent of Lakeside’s population is 55 or older.

Center board members said the increase is supposed to go toward utilities, maintenance, toilet paper and paper towels. They contend they aren’t the only ones using paper products and believe the city should do a better job of separating those expenses.

Regardless, the center’s leadership plans to bring back its October fundraiser to pay the rent. A day of crafts, baked goods, a lunch and rummage sale, the Senior Center Bazaar will be held from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. at the center. Gould said the center did not hold a bazaar last year.

“We’ll work the hardest that we can to do what we have to do for the seniors,” said Board Member Karen Ogden.

While they aren’t too worried about paying more to use the facility, Gould and Ogden are concerned that it could be a problem for future seniors.

“I just feel that we don’t know what’s in the future for these people and want to make it better than we found it,” Ogden said. “It’s fine when you’re able, but what happens when you’re not able?”