NORWICH – The lifeline device that Town of Guilford Supervisor Alton B. Doyle wears around his neck gives his family, who live in Albany, the peace of mind that enables him to continue living alone.
Though Doyle purchased the approximately $800 device himself, and many others seniors have also, a small number of lifelines have been provided free-of-charge via the Chenango County Area Agency on Aging.
“It provides confidence for my family, and lets me continue to live alone,” Doyle told his fellow members of the Finance Committee last week.
Help at the push of a button could be available for more of the county’s seniors who live alone. Earlier last week, the town supervisors who make up the county’s Health and Human Services Committee passed a resolution to apply $11,000 of a recently received $21,000 state and federal windfall to the purchase of 13 lifelines. The committee also agreed to appropriate $10,000 into next year’s budget to purchase more.
The other half of the new windfall would go toward the cost of an air conditioner in the county’s Information Technology Department. Financial leaders earlier in the budgeting season directed three county agencies to split the bill for the approximately $51,000 unit.
The Area Agency on Aging has 40 lifelines that are currently on loan to seniors, and a waiting list of approximately 120 more people over 75 who need them. Moreover, the 40 units out will become obsolete by year’s end.
Health and Human Services and Finance Committee member Richard Schlag, D-German, said one member of the former committee wanted to direct all of the windfall to the purchase of units.
“But we decided that about half would go for them, and the rest for the IT department,” he said, “and then budget more for units in 2008.”
The Finance Committee discussed where to get $10,000 into next year’s Agency’s budget. They talked about using current year or 2008 encumbrances, an existing trust line, the timing of quantity purchasing, and whether to apply the money at all.
“What’s the true value of this to Chenango County? Do we have any measure as to what they are worth for all of us?” Committee Chairman Lawrence N. Wilcox, R-Oxford, asked the Agency’s Director Deb Sanderson.
“There are a lot of things in my life that I’d like to have, but nobody is buying them for me,” Wilcox said.
Sanderson said the units keep people in their homes rather than in nursing homes, and for those on Medicaid, they can reduce the number of hours a day that an aide needs to be in the home.
“It’s a very valuable service, far reaching. Lifelines provide a direct benefit to the persons who have them and a direct benefit to family members,” she said.
Wilcox said he didn’t want to be callous, and that he appreciated what fellow supervisor Al Doyle said about the value of the units, but asked the committee, “Is that my problem as a taxpayer? Is there a source for matching dollars or other programs that would donate them?”
Town of Pharsalia Supervisor Dennis Brown asked Sanderson why she hadn’t requested to budget for lifelines in the past.
Sanderson said, historically, that she had used donations and grants to purchase the units. “The funds for these have never come out of the regular budget before. I just never thought of asking for it,” she said.
Supervisor Schlag told the committee that the amount was “small to spend on people who need the help.”
“Earlier today we were decrying the dollars spent on prisoners. This is small in comparison.”
Finance voted to table the Agency’s budget, directing Sanderson to report back to the committee how many units could be purchased by year’s end with the full $21,000.