Elgin Township’s Senior Citizens’ Services Committee will start work this week on a plan for how new tax money for senior services should be spent.
Township taxpayers approved a 0.025 percent tax increase referendum to fund senior programs in April 2017, and it will generate about $420,000 once the final property tax installment is received in October, Elgin Township Supervisor Franklin Ramirez said.
How that money will be spent, however, is undecided, something that’s raised concerns for officials at Senior Services Associates, which worked with the Elgin Township Board to have the measure placed on the ballot.
What’s changed is the trustees who sat on the board at the time the measure was placed on the ballot lost their seats in the April 2017 election, Ramirez said. Rather than just turning the funds over to Senior Services, the new township board — which includes Ramirez and newcomers Jose Villalobos, Vern Tepe, Ed Guerra and Susan Van Weelden — wanted to develop a plan for spending the money based on where existing service gaps exist, Ramirez said.
The Illinois laws that allows townships to collect tax dollars for senior programs also allows township boards to create committees to determine how the funds should be spent, he said.
There was never an agreement or discussion between the new township board and Senior Services about how those funds would be distributed, he said.
“The senior committee was created to answer that question. So the question they need to answer is, ‘What services for seniors are missing in Elgin Township?’ Ramirez said.
Committee members are Jerri McCue, Pat Hudgens, James Fox, Rich Jacobs, Mary Roberti, Jane Barbosa, William Baker, Cherie Aschenbrenner and Ginny Goyer.
There are areas where the funds could help close gaps, said Micki Miller, who succeeded Bette Schoenholtz as Senior Services Associates director in August.
“I am hopeful that we will get funding. I think that the seniors made it very clear to the township that they had strong feelings about this and I think the township listens to its seniors,” Miller said. “There are a lot of things that the group can focus on to make a huge impact on the entire senior community.”
Those programs include transportation to and from medical appointments and services that help reduce loneliness and other mental health issues, she said.
“One of the things we worry about the most is isolation and depression. Depression can affect their physical state as well,” Miller said.
Aschenbrenner, the elderly services officer for the Elgin Police Department, said one of the reasons she wanted to be on the committee was to bring more programs to the Elgin Township building on McLean Boulevard so that all township residents can participate in them.
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“Many seniors have stated that they would like to attend events at a location closer to them,” she said. “I’d like to see more technology classes, such as cell phone use: how to buy one, how to block calls, how to use apps like Facebook, how to bank online. Some seniors are intimidated by technology and I’d like to see the township assist them with learning opportunities.”
The committee, she said, will make recommendations to the township board on senior programming only — not the allocation of funding.
McCue said she looked at the programs offered by Hanover Township when thinking about what could be offered by Elgin Township.
“I wanted to (be on the committee) because I think there is a need to make sure we reach out to seniors and do a better job in Elgin Township in light of what they do in Hanover Township, the way they engage their seniors,” she said.
Hanover Township voters approved a senior referendum in 2002 and its current Senior Center on Route 59 opened in 2005. That township’s senior funding goes only to programs offered through the township.
That isn’t to say, McCue said, that Senior Services isn’t providing excellent services to seniors in Elgin or Elgin Township or that the township needs to duplicate existing services. “How do we enhance that with this opportunity — in conjunction with Senior Services and not exclusive to either,” she said.