The Wood County Committee of Aging will use grant funds to purchase vehicles and technology and pay for minor home repairs and nursing services.
It was announced at Wednesday’s committee on aging board meeting that the agency had received Healthy Aging Grant funds.
Wood County was allocated $466,495, to be dispersed by the Wood County Commissioners.
Commissioner Doris Herringshaw announced at the meeting the committee on aging would receive 100% of the funds.
The Area Office on Aging of Northwestern Ohio had also requested funding from the grant.
“We listened to their presentation. They really talked a lot about what they could do for Wood County,” Herringshaw said. “But we really felt we needed to keep (the funds) here.”
The funds have to be spent by June 30.
“I’m sure we’ll take care of that,” said board President Tom Milbrodt.
The agency will use the money to purchase two vehicles for home-delivered meals, $112,000; two medical escort vans, $88,121; technology, including server, hardware and software installation and laptop setups for a computer lab in Bowling Green, $40,053; internet connectivity for existing jetpacks, at $19.77 per month per unit, $9,490; membership in the county probate guardianship board to provide more intensive oversite, $33,870; and Great Lakes Community Action Partnership Getting Around Guides, $5,000;
Funds also will be used to pay for minor home repairs, 17 at $5,000 each, $85,000; and adult day services, $45,000.
The grant also will be used to pay for contractual nursing services with the Wood County Health Department, at $48,000.
The first $12,000 invoice for nursing services was made in December, said Jim Stainbrook, who ran Wednesday’s meeting as Executive Director Denise Niese was still recovering from being hospitalized with COVID.
Niese attended the meeting, wearing a mask and using a walker.
All grant recipients are required to allocate at least 20% of the funding to support food assistance programs, 20% for housing assistance and 10% to support internet access and digital literacy services.
The remaining funds can be used to provide strategies to improve nutrition or physical activity, outreach and advocacy for family caregivers, and programs to improve chronic pain management and/or falls risk and mobility, among others.
The agency wants to replace two of three aging trucks used for meal deliveries.
As for the medical escort sedans, the agency currently uses two Ford transit vans for door-to-door service for doctor visits. Some older folks are having trouble getting in and out of the vans.
Four-door sedans would be perfect, but finding them has been difficult, Niese said after the meeting.
The adult day services allocation will be used to underwrite 450 units, which cost $100 each.
Stainbrook also announced that the state’s Department on Aging had released $6 million to bolster adult day services.
“This is what we’ve been waiting on for quite a while,” he said. “We can get that important facility open for the residents of Wood County and the area.”
MemoryLane Care Services, located in the senior center, has been waiting for the release of funding in order to open the adult day services.
The commissioners will officially present the funds at a meeting next week.
Niese said she did not want the funds in 2023, as it would have pushed the agency over a federal threshold, requiring a more expensive audit.
Also at the meeting:
• Milbrodt was sworn in as president, Nancy Orel as vice president, Tim McCarthy as secretary, and George Stossel as treasurer. Paul Herringshaw will serve as immediate past president.
• Brooke Harrison, of Wayne, was introduced as a new board member.
• It was announced an ad hoc committee, chaired by McCarthy, will meet to review the bylaws, including ways to improve the diversity of the board. A personnel policies committee will also be needed.
• Jason Miller, human resources manager, reported the Rossford site manager position had been filled, but there is still a need for a North Baltimore site manager and North Baltimore route driver.
• Miller also announced that, including Niese, four staff members have had COVID.
“If you’re concerned that COVID is going away, it’s absolutely not. …” he said.
“We certainly have not tamed that virus,” Milbrodt said. “We still have to treat it with respect and very seriously, especially with our population, which is vulnerable.”
