SALYERSVILLE – Across the state, COVID-era funding for senior centers is ending, but the needs still remain, with local officials looking at ways to fill the gaps.
Magoffin County Judge/Executive Matthew Wireman said, “It was part of the Recovery Act that implemented by the federal government. It was the same kind of monies that went toward the counties, the school districts, all of them got this.”
Judge Wireman explained that while the grants helped fill needs that arose during the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic, the counties are now in the “hangover period.”
“Basically, what that means is we got all of this extra money to do these extra things, and to expand services in our various entities,” Wireman said. “With senior citizens and aging, that was to try to feed as many people as possible, try to get out and recruit those folks, and to provide those Meals on Wheels, those extra services, the drive thru meals, and all those things, and now we’re at the end of that. Well past that – that money has ended, and we’re in the year where there haven’t been any reductions done, reviews that the state believes to be done for eligibility purposes. They’re encouraging that to happen now. So, where we’re at, we’re at the end of the money essentially that has been appropriated for the year because they expanded it so much. Locally, I think Marlene said they were at 50 Meals on Wheels [prior to COVID] and this expanded to over 100, so it’s doubled in size. She’s hired more staff, and you see all the vehicles we’ve got out there driving, hauling the meals around. We’re at a point now where it’s going to be more restrictive. There’s going to be fewer people getting it. There’s going to be a waiting list and when people move into a healthcare facility or they pass away, those spots go away, so through attrition, we’ll be losing those numbers and that’s the initial plan they’re going through now.”
Judge Wireman explained that the problem is not isolated to senior citizens, especially in school districts across the state for programs that were expanded or raises that were instituted with one-time funding but now there’s no incoming money to match it.
“This is going to be something that’s going to go on for a few years to come, if not several years, where these services that are being provided are going to have to be scaled way back, if not eliminated altogether,” Wireman said.
He said the county judges and some of the mayors met with the Area Development District’s board last week, and they are hoping the Kentucky General Assembly will come forward and provide the funding to at least offset the drop in funding.
“What these monies done in these programs across the board was expose the need that’s out there,” Judge Wireman said. “You see all the programs that were implemented in the school districts, and they were all really great programs, and they were there for a couple of years, but now they’re going to have to go away. Same thing with senior citizens and the Meals on Wheels. We were able to push that out farther and farther out in the county, and help more and more of our people, but the only way we can keep that and maintain that need – that demand we have from this – is from the legislature, the General Assembly, to come forward and provide funding.”
He said the group of county judges he is working with is hopeful the General Assembly will address this as an emergency provision in the next assembly in January, and they will be able to address these issues quickly and for the rest of next year.
“With the numbers we have in the Big Sandy ADD district, the funding will probably be depleted sometime March or April, so then we’re going to be at a point it may not be in existence, or it may have to be scaled back so much that only a few people will get it,”
Wireman said of the importance of an emergency provision from the state legislature to help carry programs like the Magoffin County Senior Citizens’ Meals on Wheels.
At press time and through the end of the week, the Magoffin County Senior Citizens will be set up in front of the community center with a yard sale, with all proceeds going to the program and the services provided there. For more information on what they have going on, check out the “Senior Happenings” column on A5 and the calendar for the senior center, sponsored by Foothills Communications, on A3 of this week’s paper.
