— As a recently retired employee of the Cambria County Area Agency on Aging, I feel compelled to respond to recent cutbacks in services. These cutbacks include the closing of a senior center, changes in transportation and changes in the home-delivered meals program and other vital in-home services offered to older adults in Cambria County.

These changes ordered by the agency administrator were made reportedly due to “lack of funding.” As a former supervisor in the agency, I can tell you that cutbacks in programs that provide support and services to older adults are being made despite the fact that the agency carries a surplus of more than $1 million. (The agency director recently admitted this in a WJAC-TV news interview.)

This million-dollar surplus, held in a reserve fund, is taxpayers’ money that is supposed to be used by agencies across the state to provide vital services to the above-60 population.

To withhold, decrease or deny services to deserving seniors under these circumstances is a vile, reprehensible act that should outrage seniors and taxpayers of this county. This is taxpayer money earmarked specifically for senior programs.

Vulnerable, needy, struggling older adults are being shortchanged and misled by this ridiculous injustice, and taxpayers are being denied what is rightfully theirs.

There needs to be a public outcry demanding answers and accountability.

Contact the Cambria County Area Agency on Aging director at 539-5595 and demand answers.

Older adults deserve an explanation.

Jim Salvia

Johnstown

Editor’s note: We asked the Area Agency on Aging for response, which follows.



Realignment targets those most in need

With the goal of serving more needy older adults, the Cambria County Area Agency on Aging is realigning expenses and pursing efficiencies to target funding to those most in need. The current year’s budget of $5.7 million represents a decrease of $330,000 from previous years.

The financial trend of declining revenues, coupled with increasing expenses, is projected to continue and necessitates tapping into the agency’s reserves, this year, to serve those in need. Only by implementing cost-containment strategies, now, to realign expenses with income, can the agency truly fulfill its mission of serving the neediest and most vulnerable older adults for years to come.

By eliminating duplicate services and routes as mandated by PennDOT, transportation opportunities will be expanded with more frequent runs, especially in rural areas. The agency expanded  transportation sponsorship by fully paying the co-pay for Johnstown riders, 65 and older, so they need not reach into their own pockets for the required Shared Ride 15 percent co-payment. The agency continues to fund this co-pay for those 65 and older and also for seniors, age 60-64, traveling to and from senior centers.

Home-delivered meal recipients continue to receive five meals per week. Delivery days were reduced from four to three because of cost increases for food, fuel and staff. The agency continues to provide congregate meals at nine senior centers, with eight centers fully funded by the agency, two within close proximity of Nanty Glo.

The many other services provided by the agency are available as needed.

Should you know of an elder in need, please notify the agency at 539-5595. No needy senior who contacts the agency is going without services.

Thank you for the opportunity to respond.

M. Veil Griffith, Ed.D.

Administrator

Cambria County Area Agency on Aging

Johnstown



Talk is cheap, won’t get U.S. out of debt

A very disappointing state of the union address on Feb. 19 was heard by millions.

President Obama didn’t pay much attention to the gorilla in the room, and it wasn’t the Republicans’ majority in the House. The biggest gorilla in the room was almost invisible but still a palpable presence: The $16.4 trillion national debt.

Obama continued to tell the American people what Washington can do for them – not what we can do to reduce the debt and make the federal government fiscally responsible.

Obama’s new proposals totaling $80 billion was amazing, and to think it wouldn’t increase the debt by a single dime. You don’t have to be a mathematician to see this is impossible

Currently, each citizen’s share of the debt is more than $52,000. His speech offered little hope.

The Congressional Budget Office says the deficit will decrease a little. But later in the decade, the deficit will begin an inexorable rise as a result of pressures of an aging population, rising health-care costs and federal subsidies for health insurance.

Cutting our military defense should never happen. Our military is No. 1 and should remain strong.

Happy talk is not the answer. The president and Congress need to work together to get us out of this debt.

Representatives who don’t do the job need to be put out to pasture. I think they all forget who they work for. It’s our job to let them know we are not satisfied with their performance.

Joseph T. Torchia Sr.

Daytona Beach, Fla., and Johnstown



God loves us, but not what we do

It amazes me that in this nation, under God, more than 80 percent say that they believe in God, but when you talk to them or read their letters in the Readers’ Forum, they state that their god is so different than the God in the Holy Bible.

If you believe in God, you have to believe that he is perfect, and perfection does not change. He is the same God “yesterday, today and tomorrow.” He did not change to suit the 21st century. His word, the Holy Bible, the Old Testament and New Testament, has not changed.

Abortion is still murder. God is not pro-choice; he gives women the free choice to choose what is right or wrong according to his commands, and millions of women have chosen against God and life. He is the creator of all things visible and invisible. He is the giver of life and he has stated very plainly: “Thou shalt not kill.”

The gay and lesbian community refuses to believe that the laws of the Old Testament apply to them. The homosexual practices of today are no different than they were in Sodom and Gomorrah. They are an abomination in the eyes of the Lord.

Jesus said, “I did not come to change the law and the prophets, I have come to fulfill them.”

Abortion may be legal in the eyes of men and women. Same-sex marriages are legal, but legal is not moral.

God loves every one of us, but he does not love all that we do.

Rev. Tony Joseph

Richland Township

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