EMAA GETS FINAL CHECK FOR HEATING ASSISTANCE PROGRAM

So far this winter, 45 Cape Girardeau families received assistance for utility bills from East Missouri Action Agency Inc. Many more will need it before winter is over, and some may have to shiver a little longer.

The agency receives about $125,000 in grants for heating assistance each winter. The last installment arrived a week ago.

Bill Bunch, director of community services, said the Emergency Utility Crisis Assistance money always runs out before its March 31 application deadline. About 80 percent of the money already is gone.

"We received a cut this year, so there won't be a summer program to help with air-conditioning bills," Bunch said. "Usually, if there's a cold snap, we can get some extra money in the winter. Given the current fiscal situation in Washington, we don't know if that money is even available this year."

The agency hears rumors each year that the program will be cut out, Bunch said.

Low-income families whose heat has been cut off or who have received cut-off notices qualify for the program and can apply at the Cape Girardeau office on Linden Street. Some manage to amass bills of $2,000 or more by connecting utilities in one family member's name, having them disconnected due to skipping payments, and then reconnecting them in another family member's name.

It doesn't take Union Electric long to figure out what happened, Bunch said. The company caught several people with unpaid bills when it merged with Missouri Utilities years ago.

The emergency assistance program only pays $400 per family, so those heavily in debt can't get utilities reconnected without money from other sources.

Christine Enderle, community service worker for Cape Girardeau County, said she refers those people to the Division of Family Services or the American Red Cross.

"They hear about East Missouri Action Agency through UE, the Salvation Army or word-of-mouth," she said. "By the end of the program, though, we're having to send them somewhere else."

UE's Dollar More program helps keep funds coming in, although it accounts for a small percentage of the program. Utility customers are invited to pay an extra dollar on their bills, and that money goes to the East Missouri Action Agency's heating program. UE matches the money, but the matched dollars go to private agencies.

Bunch said he hoped people donated more and Congress cut less. While the United States is supposed to be a wealthy nation, many people in the eight-county region served by his agency must decide between food, medicine or heat on a monthly basis, he said.

"It would be unfortunate to have someone freeze to death because of this program being cut," he said. "That has happened as recently as the early 1980s."

The agency serves Bollinger, Cape Girardeau, Iron, Madison, Perry, St. Francois, Ste. Genevieve and Washington counties. Programs offered help people with housing, family planning, health care and employment.