Council on Aging report given

Serving the seniors is a continuing challenge, but the St. Mary Council on Aging is chugging along despite funding shortfalls.
Domengeaux told the parish council Wednesday that 18 percent of the parish population is over the age of 65, and growing.
“This past fiscal year we delivered 38,000 meals,” she said, “and 9,000 meals at our three sites, 3,993 homemaker services units, 4,181 transportation trips and and 1,670 units of registered sitters.”
The council’s charter reflects the 47-year-old Older Americans Act. “They determined that the population was getting older because of better medicine, people were living longer, so they set the age at 60…they mandated that each state must have some type of program for seniors, and then the states mandated that each parish or country must have some planned program for the seniors of their community.”
Domengeaux said seniors are important to a community. “They still shop here, they still live here, they still play here when they can find something to do, like at our centers,” she said. “When the Older American’s Act was passed, they put a value of $1.75 on each one of us. For 47 years we haven’t gotten a raise. It’s now being discussed in Washington and in Baton Rouge…they’ve got us up to $2.92. So we’re worth about $3.”
The parish council has continued to support the program. “We appreciate all that you do for us,” Domengeaux said. “I’m looking at that chair up there…Mr. (Albert) Foulcard would always ask me if everybody was paying their fair share…each municipality does pay their share except one right now. But it also means that in order to meet the needs, we had to write grants and hold fundraisers and raise over $149,000 last year. We did it.”
There are 118 seniors on the waiting list for services.