Allegations that town employees had been working “on the town’s clock” while voluntarily cooking for the Hennessey Senior Citizens’ weekly lunch program were debunked during a town trustees meeting earlier this month.

Town employees Bryan Burch and his wife, Shelley, were accused of that by Marjorie Luper, an audience member, during this month’s town board meeting on Oct. 14.

Luper said she had proof and dates and Town Administrator Tiffany Rowen asked her to bring that information to her the next day.

Luper said she would.

Bryan Burch is the longtime sewer superintendent for the town’s Public Works Authority and was not at this month’s board meeting.

Shelley Burch is the Town Hall office manager and was named town clerk a few months ago after it was vacated. She was taking the board’s minutes during the meeting.

Mrs. Burch said her husband may have gone by the center on a break, or during lunch, to pick up some meat, or to deliver it after he’d cooked it.

Several volunteers have reportedly been helping with the meals after the cook quit earlier this month.

Both of the Burches have been volunteering at the center and Mrs. Burch is the Town Hall contact for those who want to book the Community Center (formerly Senior Citizen Center).

Luper, a longtime member of the Senior Citizens Center, made that allegation about the Burches following a report by Teresa (Thomas) Dillon about plans to keep the group’s weekday lunch program going.

Dillon had been asked to speak about the Senior Citizens Center program at the request of Trustee David Jones.

“My mother, Joyce Thomas, goes up to the center every day for lunch,” Dillon said. “So it’s important to me to keep that going for her that she has that lunch, and that camaraderie with her community every day.”

Lavonne Asked for Help “In the spring, the Senior Citizens Center director, Lavonne O’Bryant, asked me to sign with her on some of the paperwork that comes from the state for money to help us with food,” Dillon told the board. “And, she also wanted me to go on the bank account with her after the death of Barbara Platt in June who had been her second on that account with her.

“Lavonne is willing to retire,” said Dillon, “because she just can’t physically do what she had done before and it’s frustrating her to no end that she can’t do all she wants to do.”

Luper alleged that wasn’t the case.

“When I talked with Lavonne and asked her if she was being pushed out, ‘or are you wanting to retire?’ She said she was being pushed out and she had no help,” said Luper.

“And I told you, I don’t have a problem with Lavonne stepping down. She is a 90-year-old-lady. She had been the one running it since I’d been there.”

An O’Bryant relative spoke up from the audience.

“Grandma (Lavonne O’Bryant) was worried about whether or not her people got fed. No one is forcing her out,” said granddaughter Janie Moore.

“If anyone is forcing her out, it’s me! She’s 90. She had a broken hip that has been replaced, and her health is not great. She needs to retire. She told me today that Teresa is going to do the longterm grant and my grandma is relieved.”

Not a Town Issue

In the early discussion about the center, Trustee Bert Gritz broke in and said: “This isn’t a town issue. The town has nothing to do other than the Town of Henesssey just owns that building. And, if the Town of Hennessey employees want to volunteer on their own time to go help then kudos to them.

“I am proud of employees who want to get involved in this community, and do something good. There is nothing to be done here. It seems that the board is reorganizing, but that’s not my business; that’s not the town’s business.”

However, the conversations continued.