POULSBO — Despite a recent barrage of less than flattering letters to the editor in the North Kitsap Herald, North Kitsap Senior Center board president Joan Dooley believes there’s nothing wrong.

“We’d rather be a small good group than a big sloppy one,” Dooley said responding to an apparent rift among the center’s members that has led to allegations of seniors being asked to leave the center. “We want to serve everybody.”

This latter statement runs contrary to those of Louise Rikley, who said she was indeed kicked out of the Front Street center Feb. 14 — Valentine’s Day.

Rikley, who had been a member since 1999, said when she arrived at the center for her weekly pinochle game, the center’s board refused to renew her membership.

“The president asked the treasurer to take the membership book home, and when I tried to renew my membership, she said she couldn’t because she didn’t have the book,” Rikley said.

Shortly afterwards, Rikley said she was asked to leave the center and had to wait outside for a ride home. This, she said, happened at about noon.

“I took the ACCESS bus, and it wasn’t supposed to pick me up until 3:30 p.m.,” Rikley said.

Fortunately, one of the organizers of the pinochle game was able to give her a ride home, she said.

“I’m going to Bainbridge Island and I found eight others from our pinochle group (there),” she said.

The members of the pinochle group and those who supported the Chuckwagon Senior Nutrition Program’s service in the center have been systematically excluded from the Poulsbo Senior Center, Rikley alleged. Chuckwagon ended its service to the center Jan. 1 because the center’s board recommendation such action, which was approved during a membership meeting, Rikley said.

“I would like to see the Chuckwagon go back,” she said. “It’s something that’s needed by several of the old people.”

While the center’s membership voted not to sign an agreement with Chuckwagon to continue its service at the center, Dooley said other factors beyond personal disagreements factored into the decision. As part of its routine inspection function, the Kitsap County Health District found the Chuckwagon volunteers serving food at the center didn’t have their required food handler’s certifications, Dooley said.

“We didn’t have anything to do with what was going on with the health department,” Dooley said Monday morning. “We were told by (Chuckwagon executive director) Julie (Pounds) it had to do with all sites.”

This was news to Kitsap County Health District food safety and environmental health program manager Bonnie Latham.

“We didn’t close them for any reason,” Latham said Monday afternoon. “We wouldn’t do that — especially not Chuckwagon.”

Even if Chuckwagon volunteers didn’t have food handler’s certifications, that wouldn’t be a reason for the health district to stop their service, Latham said.

In order not to interrupt the holidays, the center’s board allowed Chuckwagon to continue providing meals until the first of 2007, Dooley said.

For its part, the center’s board voted not to ink an agreement with Chuckwagon to allow it to continue serving meals, she said.

“We didn’t feel it would be the right thing for the center,” Dooley said.

The board had no problems with the bridge group, which has members from as far away as Seabeck and Bainbridge Island, but it did have issues with the pinochle group, which was led by the same volunteers responsible for Chuckwagon, she said.

The pinochle group was allowing non-members to play, which requires a state gaming license, she said.

That information came directly from a Washington State Gambling Commission representative, who explained the laws concerning card and dice games, at the center’s Valentine’s Day meeting, Dooley said. If the center wanted to allow any wagers on any of its activities, it would needt a state gaming license, she said.

“We had one in the past, but with all of the casinos and other places to gamble, we decided not to have it,” Dooley said.

The center does take donations for coffee and its memberships are $5 annually, but other than that, it doesn’t charge for participation in its activities, she said.

Currently, the center is returning to its founding principles, which are fun, fellowship and service, she said.

“We are obeying our by-laws and doing things the way they should be,” Dooley said. “We’re really fine.”