Commissioners to place Senior Services Levy on May Ballot

The Coun­cil for Older Adults bal­lot request for a renewal of its cur­rent levy and a small increase has been approved by the Delaware County Com­mis­sion­ers for the May bal­lot. If approved by vot­ers the funds will enable cur­rent ser­vices to be con­tin­ued for older adults receiv­ing care today and for oth­ers expected to need assis­tance over the next five years. The Coun­cil pro­vides essen­tial in-home care such as Meals On Wheels, per­sonal care, med­ical trans­porta­tion, adult day care and much more.

Accord­ing to Robert Hor­rocks, exec­u­tive direc­tor of the Coun­cil, ser­vices made avail­able through this levy enable seniors to remain liv­ing safely in their own home and this approach is much less expen­sive than nurs­ing home care. “Most times a lit­tle bit of help enables local seniors to remain liv­ing safely where they pre­fer to be. It’s a win-win”, he said.

The addi­tional mill­age request of 0.3 mills will cost about $9.20 annu­ally per $100,000 of prop­erty valuation.

The addi­tional mill­age is requested in order to keep pace with the rapid growth of Delaware County’s older pop­u­la­tion. Accord­ing to the Scripps Geron­tol­ogy Cen­ter at Miami Uni­ver­sity, Delaware County’s older pop­u­la­tion led Ohio in growth. From 2000 to 2010, the 65-plus pop­u­la­tion in Delaware County grew by 83.3 per­cent. By com­par­i­son, the growth of this same pop­u­la­tion dur­ing this period was only 7.7 per­cent for the state of Ohio. Over the next five year, the num­ber of in-home clients served by the Coun­cil for Older Adults is expected to increase by 35 percent.

Under state law, senior ser­vices levies can last no longer than five years. Fund­ing from the cur­rent senior ser­vices oper­at­ing levy will expire at the end of 2013. More than 80 per­cent of the Coun­cil for Older Adults’ fund­ing comes from levy dol­lars. The remain­ing funds are com­posed of grants, dona­tions, ser­vice fees, sales and spon­sor­ships income.

For more infor­ma­tion or to learn how you can vol­un­teer with the Coun­cil call 740–363-6677 or visit their web­site at < www.growingolder.org >.

Posted by Gary Henery on Jan 30 2013. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS Feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.