Butler County Elderly Services renewal levy on November ballot

If voters approve the renewal of a Butler County Elderly Services Program levy in November it will still cost the owner of a $100,000 home about $40 a year.

The Elderly Services Advisory Council is asking voters to approve a 1.3-mill renewal levy on the November ballot. The current levy that is expiring is expected to bring in $9.6 million this year, with an expected $8.6 million carryover to help meet the bills. If approved, the renewal levy would bring in about $48 million over five years.

The average cost per month for the county’s elderly services program, which provides transportation, meals, emergency monitoring and other services, is $361. Assisted living is $1,688 and nursing home care is about $4,340.

Cynthia Stever, president of the advisory board, said the services will disappear if voters don’t lend their support, but she is pretty confident that won’t happen. The first levy passed in 1996 and has gotten approval ever since, 70 percent approval the last time it was on the ballot in 2010.

“The levy comprises 92 percent of the funding for the Elderly Services Program, so it’s a significant piece and there is no other funding source,” she said. “We have been very successful in the past and you know it makes you feel good as a citizen of Butler County to know that the residents recognize the importance of helping our elderly stay in their homes as long as possible.”

If the levy fails and services cease, that’s a scenario that scares Hamilton resident Clavilia Rice.

Rice says she would not be able to care for her husband, Forrest, who suffers from dementia, if not for the Elderly Services levy.

“Him being anywhere other than here, I don’t think he would have survived this long,” Rice said of her 93-year-old husband. “Because of the familiar surroundings, that’s important, especially when the short term memory is gone, to all of a sudden be placed in unfamiliar territory (would not be good).”

The agency installed grab bars inside and outside the house to prevent falls, an alarm button at the foot of the front door that alerts Rice if her husband steps outside or someone has come to the door and provided a walker with a seat, housekeeping help, meals, respite and personal care.

The Elderly Services Program experienced 20 percent growth between 2006 and 2009 but has leveled off and now serves almost 4,000 senior citizens. Laurie Petrie, vice president of communications for the Council on Aging of Southwest Ohio, said the Scripps Gerontology Center projects that Butler County’s proportion of residents age 60-plus will increase from 19 to 22 percent over the next five years.

Petrie said in 2020 nearly 8,000 of these individuals will have physical and/or cognitive disability. Of these, about one in four will have income at or below 200 percent of the federal poverty level, indicating a need for community support for their care.

The county commissioners have said the program is an asset to the county.

“I think this is a levy that delivers a lot of benefit for the community,” Commissioner Don Dixon said. “I think everyone understands how this board looks at levies and taxes, and this is a service that by far is worth its weight.”

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