LETTER TO THE EDITOR: Our Needy Elderly Members Of Our Community Deserve Better

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OUR NEEDY ELDERLY MEMBERS OF OUR COMMUNITY DESERVES BETTER 

By Laura Blackburn

I have seen a lot of wonderful things happen in Evansville over the past sixty-plus years, and I have seen some bad ones, too. What is being done to the senior citizens who depend on the services of the Southwestern Indiana Council on Aging (SWIRCA and MORE) is unacceptable.

Even after Evansville got good news of being named one of Indiana’s three winners of “Regional Cities” designation and the $42 million in funds that accompany it, no one in City government has seen fit to restore public funding for SWIRCA and MORE That failure to fund is going to hurt the people of this city who can least afford it. Now our Senior citizens are now going to have to pay $30/year membership fees in order to continue enjoying the services of SWIRCA and MORE. For some who attend the meal programs and other activities on a regular basis, the $30 fee will not be a problem, but for far too many it creates a financial challenge because Evansville is “grayer” and poorer than most cities in Indiana. SWIRCA’s services are one of the few bright spots in the lives of our elderly poor, offering nutritious meals, transportation, medical help and day-brightening social activities for them. There is no doubt in my mind that providing funding to see that all who need it will have a more positive effect on the lives of the neediest among us than developing a bike lanes on North Main.

I understand that there are specific requirements for the use of that “free” money we are being “gifted” with and it may not be directly usable for restoring money to SWIRCA and MORE.  It does seem likely that the grant money may be used to ease some of the other budgets, in order to free up funds for the neediest seniors to continue to have their membership in SWIRCA.  DMD Director Kelley Coures has shown how creative he can get with the use of “free” money so we believe he can find a way to solve this funding problem facing our most vulnerable elderly folks.

I am asking everyone who agrees that our needy elderly members of the community deserve better than they are getting to call the Mayor’s office (812-436-4962) this week and leave a message that you want to see funding restored to SWIRCA and MORE. For those who can afford it, I hope you will also go to the SWIRCA and MORE site online and sponsor a needy senior for a membership. That would, I’m sure, brighten their holiday a great deal. We just can’t let the people who don’t have a lot to look forward to lose out on SWIRCA and MORE services! Please do whatever you can to keep the doors open and the food and fun flowing for our well deserving senior citizens!

Wishing you and yours the best holiday ever,
Laura Blackburn

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4 COMMENTS

  1. Some one has to pay for the new hotel, new bike path, dog park, etc. This $30 that is being taken from the seniors is minor to the totality of what they are being forced to contribute to the Mayors projects. They should have voted in the recent election. The people have spoken and they want fun and games for the party people and the rest have to pay for it. You seniors need to get with the program and spend their time downtown and the Arts District.

  2. Editor,

    There has been much misinformation and confusion regarding the Indiana Regional Cities initiative; and, in particular, the accompanying funding. The initiative is not an Evansville initiative but a regional one focused on population growth, retention and attraction of talent as well as building a national brand.

    The City of Evansville does not control the funding as the initiative and funding will be managed by the newly formed Southwest Indiana Regional Development Authority. The Southwest Indiana RDA was formed according to Indiana Statute with a board comprised of five members and none of which are elected officials or work for a unit of government.

    Funding is designed for quality of place bricks and mortar projects and cannot be used for programs or infrastructure such as water, sewer lines, roadways, etc. The Southwest Indiana region’s submission was managed by the Economic Development Coalition of Southwest Indiana with more than 100 people involved in the process to craft a winning strategy. Unfortunately, the Senior Citizen programs described in the article listed above cannot be funded through Regional Cities funds.

    Each submitted strategy by a region, of which there were seven, was required to meet pre-determined criteria and had to include the exact projects to be funded with Regional Cities funds along with the listing of matching funding sources in order to leverage private investment. The Coalition and its partners have been engaged in the process for more than a year and it has been generously covered by the local media.

    Understand that the Regional Cities initiative can only fund things as determined by the Indiana Economic Development Corporation and as prescribed within the Regional Cities statute. If any of the City County Observer’s readers have questions regarding the initiative, please feel free to contact me at gwathen@southwestindiana.org or 812-423-2020. You can also go to http://www.indianasgreatsouthwest.com to view the regional strategy.

    Thank you.

    Greg Wathen
    President & CEO
    Economic Development Coalition of Southwest Indiana

  3. Laura,
    Has SWIRCA’s funding been cut?
    It’s not clear from reading this article why the SWIRCA funding has been cut back or eliminated.

    And “Justice Forall” is saying the funds were stolen from SWIRCA to pay for hotels and dog parks.
    Is that true?

    • The city has many pockets to keep our money. They continually move it from one pocket to the other and decide to pull our money, in the case of the hotel, or an empty pocket, in the case of SWIRCA.

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