SENIORS HOPING TO PASS TAX

CAPE GIRARDEAU -- For an investment of a few dollars a year, Cape Girardeau County residents can enhance the services provided to senior citizens.

Voters are being asked to approve a 5 cent tax per each $100 of assessed valuation on all taxable property. The measure takes a simple majority to pass.

The tax will generate an estimated $220,000 in revenue annually. At least 20 different agencies serving the elderly in the county would be eligible to apply for the funds generated by this tax.

Money could be used to expand the meal programs in Cape Girardeau and Jackson throughout the county.

Also, money could help provide transportation for seniors, and would enhance adult day care programs, respite care and homemaker services for the elderly.

"This costs so little," said Jack Slaughter, president of the Cape County Transit. "The majority of people will pay between $3 and $6 a year."

A person owning a house with a market value of $60,000 would pay an additional $5.70 each year. A person owning a house valued at $30,000 would pay $2.85.

For this annual investment, organizers said, programs will be implemented and expanded to improve the health, nutrition and quality of life for persons age 60 and older.

Cape Girardeau County has 11,155 residents over age 60; 3,906 are over age 75. In the county, 15.3 percent of senior citizens are at or below the poverty level, said organizers.

"All services provided for by this tax will help keep senior citizens in their own homes and out of nursing homes," said Cecilia Sonderman, a member of the committee seeking approval of the tax.

Glenn Lampley, chairman of the committee, explained that if the measure passes, a seven-member board of directors will be appointed by the Cape Girardeau County Commission. This board will distribute the funds to agencies serving the elderly. The board of directors will serve without pay. Agencies would submit budget proposals to the board.

Among possible uses for the money is the expansion of delivery of meals to home-bound seniors.

Russel Faust, president of the Cape Girardeau Nutrition Center, explained that meals are served at the center, 232 Broadway, and are delivered within the Cape Girardeau city limits.

Rupert Fiehler, president of the Jackson Nutrition Center, said the meal program at Jackson was similar. Meals are delivered within the city limits. "And volunteers take that expense on themselves."

Faust said: "With the additional money, we might be able to reach out to places like Delta, Dutchtown or north to Oak Ridge or Daisy."

Fiehler added: "This would really help pay mileage and help us deliver more meals out of town."

Slaughter, also a volunteer with the nutrition program, said: "We are old people helping old people."

While he said it was good for the elderly to help each other, he added, "This winter it got to be a problem with the ice. If the tax proposal is passed, we could use some of the money to pay an individual to deliver these meals to shut-ins."

Slaughter explained that the transit system operates three vans to transport seniors to doctors' visits, grocery shopping or even to the nutrition center.

"At the present time we are really confined to the city of Jackson," Slaughter said. "We occasionally bring a van over to Doctor's Park."

He said the tax revenue could be used to contribute toward driver's salaries and also to purchase new equipment.

"We could increase the district in which we operate out into rural areas of Cape County," Slaughter said.

Glenda Hood, executive director of the Area Agency on Aging, explained that an adult day care center, the Eldercare Center, in Cape Girardeau serves people in the city only. It is operated with Southeast Missouri State University.

The center provides a place for older people who need some guidance to get through the day. "With additional money, we could expand to include people who live outside the city. Say a person works in Cape Girardeau. They could bring their older parent to the center for the day. I look at it as the reverse of child care."

Respite care is a service for the person caring for someone who has a long-term illness. A trained individual will come to a person's home as a geriatric sitter so the caregiver can go out shopping or just get a break, Hood explained.

A program providing a person to do chores such as routine house cleaning and sometimes personal care activities is also available. "It's not maid service," Hood said. "People who may be able to drive a car, might not be able to push the vacuum cleaner or bend over to pick things up off the floor.

"We also provide services to the very frail elderly who are right at the point that without help, they will go to a nursing home. With daily help, they can stay at home."

Each of these services might be expanded with money generated through the proposed tax.

Hood said: "This is a very low-cost tax which will benefit individuals who are senior citizens now, and will benefit all of us in the future."

Sonderman said the money is not destined for entertainment activities like bingo or card games. "It will go for services, probably services for people we've never even seen."

"Really this is a type of insurance for when you need these services," Sonderman said. "We are all going to be senior citizens some day. You never know when you will need it."