COA: Millage needed for seniors’ meals

The Lafourche Council on Aging Inc. will ask voters to approve a two-mill request July 19 to ensure the agency is able to provide meals to the parish’s elderly and shut-ins.

The request comes just as the parish’s Library Board announced plans to drop two mills from its millage renewal, which will also be on the July ballot.

According to Parish President Charlotte Randolph, more than 50 percent of the Library Board’s building projects are complete. Board members believe there is sufficient funds being generated annually to cover day-to-day operations.

“The Lafourche COA really needs this two mills, which will generate about $1 million for the agency, because we really don’t want them to have people on the waiting list for elderly programs,” Randolph said.

COA Executive Director Charlene Rodriguez agreed, saying the agency currently has elderly citizens on its Meals-on-Wheels program waiting list.

Lafourche’s COA is a private, non-profit entity. Lafourche resident Nellie Arcement started the program in 1974; she initially cooked at her home. The agency relies on funds from the Governor’s Office of Elderly Affairs and, since 1977, the United Way to provide services to the citizens age 60 and older.

Rodriquez said it is are not enough to fund all the agency’s programs.

“We’re having a tough time constructing an annual budget because we don’t know the exact amount of money we will receive from year to year,” the executive director said. “Lafourche’s COA does not have secure funding coming in annually like other COAs.”

In 2004, the agency sought assistance from the Lafourche Parish Government. That same year, voters approved a measure allowing the parish to redirect some money from a fund balance to help the COA, according to Randolph.

“We’ve done a very good job in making sure that the agency increased its services to the community the past few years,” she said.

To date, the parish government has contributed more than $1.7 million to the agency. Also, with the parish’s help, the Lafourche COA is able to offer health benefits to its employees.

“Without the parish government’s help, we would not have made it this far,” Rodriguez said.

Randolph is more concerned about the Meals-on-Wheels program because it is one of the larger community efforts for seniors citizens.

At one point in its tenure, the Lafourche COA had sufficient funds to run the program but lacked enough employees to deliver the meals. Now, drivers are plentiful but the agency is cash-strapped, Randolph said.

Retired housekeeper and Thibodaux resident Lula Golden, 72, has been a member of the Lafourche Parish Council on Aging for a couple of years. She became a part of the program while providing 24-hour care to her mother, Harriett Golden, who is now deceased.

Golden worked more than 33 years before illness caused her to cut back her load in 1989. However, through hard work and determination, she regained some of her independence and began working again. In 1999, that ended when she had to retire to care for her elderly mother.

“It’s hard getting used to not working when you’ve done it for so many year,” she said.

As a senior citizen, Golden is pretty much still self-sufficient. However, she participates in the COA’s Meals-on-Wheels program, and sometimes receives utility assistance.

“When my mom was alive, the meals on wheels program was good for us,” Golden said. “The council on aging is a good program for the elderly, and our hope is that it gets better.”