It wouldn't be a typical day at Waco's Sul Ross Senior Center if there wasn't a good game of Mexican Dominos going on.

"My wife says this is my office. You going to the office? she says and I say yeah, my limbs are moving, I'm going. " said Thomas Mitchell.

The men and women at the Sul Ross Center have been playing dominos and cards together for years.

" I've been retired since 1964 and I needed something to do, "said Bill Bailey.

Getting up and heading to the neighborhood senior center gives many seniors something to do, they say they would be lost without it.

"These few hours means a lot to get up and have somewhere to go, " Mitchell said.

But come the first of the year things will change. A nearly $50,000 budget shortfall is forcing Central Texas' Senior Ministries to close the South Waco and the South Terrace Centers and to reduce the hours of operation at Sul Ross and across town at the Harrison Center from 20 to 15 hours a week.

Many who depend on the center say it's a hard thing to stomach. Ella Mae Harper has been volunteering here for 15 years.

"It's a second home for me, when I lost my husband I don't know what I would have done if not for this place," Harper said.

Officials say a lack of state and federal funds is behind the decision to make the cutbacks.

"Although our aging population is increasing, it's not increasing as much as Dallas or Houston, so dollars are being shifted away," said Senior Ministries Executive Director, Melody McDermitt.

McDermitt says she's struggling with the cutbacks too. Over the past couple of days, she's been visting the Centers to explain what's going on. She's asked the Waco City Council for $28,000 to help make up the shortfall. If the money isn't approved even more cutbacks will be made, including the elimination of meals and the director's position at the Harrison facility.

The Waco City Council is expected to take up the issue at the next council meeting on November 18.