Senior Levy Replacement voter approval occurred November 2024 with no tax collections for spending until April 2026.

The 11-member Senior Services Advisory Council has a difficult job trying to best serve the entire community in all areas of service with sometimes unpopular decisions. Several of those areas are for homebound seniors fighting hard to stay in the comforts of their own homes but don’t have the physical ability to accomplish very basic needs such as laundry, cooking meals, washing dishes or even bathing. This levy provides those services but, even with the additional funds to be received, a waiting list will still exist, although reduced.

That wait-list is extensive and is projected to grow due to federal and state reductions in spending, forcing the local levies to serve even more people.

In advance of the 2026 receipt of additional funding, SSAC, with my advisement, released additional funds for 2025 contracts to spend down the carryover that had accumulated during COVID by doubling the amount for in-home care and, still, that wait-list exists.

Once the 2026 collections are received, the expanded services will be within a sustainable budget for all services provided.

As an attempt to serve those needing the very basics, the volunteers of the SSAC made a recommendation to the Trumbull County Commissioners to reallocate a portion of the funds from senior centers whose participants are physically capable of self-care, can drive and have the ability to travel from one senior center to possibly another. The reallocation from senior centers was to help address the wait-list for those who are not active, not mobile outside of their own home and need basic care. Without this basic care, options are to move in with family members, if family exists or even desires to take that responsibility, or otherwise, nursing home care might be the only option.

It was a difficult decision but when considering basic human necessities versus multiple senior centers, the hope was that these 11 centers could merge and, for the most part, participants would still have their social centers — just maybe not at their favorite stomping ground.

Change is difficult but research has shown that adapting helps one live longer. Churches have merged. Schools have merged.

The council was hoping senior centers could merge or at least fundraise for the amount of the reduction, which, on average, would have been less than $1000 a month per center.

In these days of government budgets and spending, our own county departments are being asked to tighten their belts and look for ways to reduce spending. Costs are rising everywhere, including for in-home care personal service where a wait-list has existed for years. This was SSAC’s solution to that wait-list.

Merging could mean more opportunities to meet new people and to fully utilize a building. Our surrounding counties have far less than Trumbull County — six in Ashtabula, just one in Mahoning.

That ONE is funded by the Austintown Levy and not from the County Senior Levy. One of our county senior centers receives funding from the local city levy and the county levy.

These were many of the reasons why the SSAC made this recommendation.

The volunteers on this council have careers in human services with a retired medical director, a social worker who hears of this need daily, a retired government employee in adult protective services, and even a retiree who had worked at a senior center.

These are not uneducated individuals without knowledge of the senior industry and are valued for their input. The council unanimously agreed to this reallocation.

The Trumbull County Board of Commissioners did not approve the reallocation, so the current 11 senior centers funding requests are underway with the bid process and, as a whole, will have the same funding as accustomed to receiving. Additional funding has recently been released for homemaker / personal care services, to be paid from the carryover dollars. A bid process also is underway that will help alleviate some of the wait-list, but more is needed. And even with the requested amount, a wait-list will still exist.

Recently, a local parish priest gave a sermon on gratitude, and it really hit home with what’s been on my mind. He said we should have gratitude for what we have. Here in the Western world, the United States, we are very spoiled. We have everything we need — a roof over our head, a warm bed in the winter, a car, plenty of food and money to spend frivolously.

In my administration of the funds, I hear daily from those who are not spoiled, who don’t have a car, plenty of food and money, and need a bath just once or twice a week. That is when my heart cries out to those who have and wish human compassion prevails for those who do not and are about to lose their dignity in the home. And that is the difficulty of serving the community as best as we can with your property tax dollars.

For additional information, contact Trumbull County Senior Levy Administrator Diane Siskowic-Jurkovic at 330-675-7846 or sljurkov@co.trumbull.oh.us.