MANSFIELD — The Ohio District 5 Area Agency on Aging plans to seek renewal of its five-year, 1.5-mill property tax levy on the May 2 primary ballot.
Representatives from the agency met Tuesday morning with Richland County commissioners, who approved a resolution that sends the agency to Auditor Pay Dropsey to determine the actual dollar amounts associated with the levy renewal.
Agency officials will meet with commissioners again Jan. 24 to seek final approval from commissioners to place the issue on the ballot. As a renewal, the levy will not increase taxes.
The levy has received significant local support since its inception as a one-mill levy in 2013 when 61 percent of voters were in favor. The percentage went up in 2018 when a half-mill was added with 72 percent voting “yes.”
Area Agency on Aging 2021 annual report
Agency CEO Duana Patton and Trae Turner, vice president of community living, provided commissioners with a copy of the agency’s 2021 annual report and also information on how local levy dollars are used.
The local dollars allow the agency to leverage federal funds that often require a 15-to-25 percent local match. In the last three years during the COVID-19 pandemic, the agency has seen a growth of 237 percent in clients receiving meals, 80-percent increase in home repair assistance and a 30-percent increase in transportation.
Services supported by levy funds include homemaker, personal care, home-delivered meals, emergency response systems, case management, congregate meals, grab-and-go meals and programs that address social isolation, transportation, education and wellness.
“The Richland County Senior Services levy is truly a gift for our organization and all of the people that we served across Richland County,” Patton said.
“It has allowed us to do a lot of great things to serve seniors, to keep them in their (own) homes,” she said.
The agency, headquartered at 2131 Park Ave. West, operates in a nine-county region — Richland, Ashland, Crawford, Knox, Huron, Marion, Morrow, Seneca and Wyandot.
Local tax dollars are used only in Richland County, according to Patton.
Turner highlighted the agency’s personal care and homemaker services efforts, especially for residents 60 and older who aren’t eligible for Medicaid-funded Passport services.
“(The levy) really gives us that funding stream that we can support those individuals to either alleviate some of the burden. Some of those individuals have the ability to private-pay for some services, some do not, but it really allows us to just alleviate some of the burden that maybe the family or themselves are able to support, but not all of it,” Turner said.
He noted a shortage of state-tested nursing assistants and that agency officials had met with Clint Knight, director of workforce development at Richland Area Chamber & Economic Development.
“He gave us some really good ideas that we were able to look at when we were creating something different. (State) Sen. Mark Romanchuk has been really instrumental in some conversations that we had and really encouraged us to try to solve this (shortage) at a local level,” Turner said.
He said the local Area Agency on Aging contracts with 43 personal care and homemaker providers and that only 18 were able to accept cases due to staffing shortages.
“What that meant for us is individuals that either were going on a waiting list that we couldn’t even help, or current individuals that we were serving, that the providers had to say, ‘Hey, I can no longer staff this case.’ For our vulnerable seniors that we serve, they rely on us being there. So that was a huge pain point for us,” Turner said.
“So what we did is leverage a registered nurse and then we hired an STNA that when the provider network was unable to staff those cases, we would help those individuals,” he said.
“Since August of 2021, we were able to help 55 individuals that would’ve gone without care, nearly 900 hours of in-home personal care and homemaker services,” Turner said.
“We know that this problem isn’t going away. Unfortunately, those needs are going to increase. And so we’re prepared right now, we’re actively hiring more STNAs and that’s all because of the levy.
“Really at the end of the day, that’s what the story is. All of this goes away if it wasn’t for the levy funds,” Turner said.
He encouraged commissioners to read the information about services funded through the levy.
“We’re doing a lot of innovative things. A lot of people talk about COVID and social isolation and all the problems that were there. But with our partnerships, we haven’t been just talking about it. We’ve been putting these dollars to use to make a difference.
“We’ve done social isolation grants through here with community partners as we’ve kind of transitioned out of COVID. We know that that was the hardest on our seniors,” he said.
“We’ve been able to just do some really innovative things to provide socialization, maybe develop some new skills for the first time, let people know what else is out there and available so that they can just become more active in their community,” Turner said.
As a community development group committed to growing Mansfield, NECIC sees civic engagement as vital for a healthy community. Rooted in the North End, their efforts benefit North Central Ohio and beyond. They promote informed voter turnout for a thriving society. Explore at www.necic-ohio.org.