PLAINVILLE The membership of the town senior center has doubled in the past five years, and the center is now seeking a grant to hire a part-time receptionist.

The center applied this month to the Community Foundation of Greater New Britain for a grant to hire an $16 an hour office assistant to work 19 hours a week at the center’s front desk, answering questions, signing up new members, accepting program applications and talking with callers and walk-ins, director Shawn Cohen said Tuesday.

Since its founding 40 years ago, the center has relied heavily on volunteers, who in 2015 donated more than 16,000 hours to the center, Cohen said in her report.

“We have so many really committed people helping to make the center the exciting place it is,” she said.

But over the years, a decline in volunteerism has made it tougher to find people willing to commit to a set schedule to run the front desk, a duty that includes creating and keeping financial records.

“Our ‘Achilles Heel’ is finding competent volunteers to provide accurate financial record keeping, money handling, attention to detail, careful and correct documentation and a precise review of work done prior to reconciliation,” she said.

The center unsuccessfully tried to recruit and train volunteers to handle the financial task of trip and program registration. So “we now pair one volunteer with a senior center staffer who oversees accuracy,” she said in the report.

The grant the center seeks would cover the $15,808 cost of the new office assistant for one year.