Elmhurst City Council members have agreed to boost the budget for aid to Elmhurst’s seniors.
The Elmhurst Office of Senior Services will receive a 31 percent budget increase this year, officials said, adding $12,374 to the office’s initial 1997 budget of $42,000. Although the office has been providing social services to the city’s elderly and municipal employees for the last 18 years, it has received annual cost increases of just 3 percent despite a jump in the number of cases from 84 per month to 117 per month, officials noted.
With between 11,000 and 12,000 people older than 60 years of age in Elmhurst–the largest population of seniors in the county–the request for more funds “is a modest increase,” said Ald. Susan Rose, chairwoman of the City Council’s Public Affairs and Safety Committee.