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south dakota: organization receives grant |
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Northeast South Dakota Community Action Program will receive a $261,475.00 USDA Rural Development grant, according to a news release.
This funding, announced in a news release from the office of U.S. Representative Stephanie Herseth Sandlin, D-S.D., will allow NESDCAP to provide new and expanded services.
"Growing up in rural northeastern South Dakota, I can attest to the importance of rural development grants in maintaining a way of life that has defined America for generations," Herseth Sandlin said in the release. "This grant that will support efforts to enhance the quality of life in rural South Dakotan communities by fostering economic development through professional training and improved communications, funding housing and facility construction and strengthening support for community-based wind energy projects."
"Administered by USDA Rural Development , the Rural Community Development Initiative program provides grant funding to support efforts of organizations like NESDCAP who assist beneficiaries in building their capacity in housing, community facilities and economic development programs and programming," states the release.
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anxiety over heating costs increases |
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Harrisburg, Pa. - Homeowners already pinched by high food and gas prices have grown increasingly anxious about staying warm this winter.
At state assistance offices and at community organizations, phones are ringing off the hook as people seek help with what are expected to be punishing heating bills. Legislators and governors from Alaska to Maine are watching the gap between surging need in their states, and assistance that may or may not be coming from Washington.
Aid agencies fear they may have to turn more people away, or give less cash assistance to individual families.
"People are very worried about this winter," said Ann Heidenreich, executive director of the nonprofit Community Energy Services in Canton, N.Y. "We're not going to deal with all that needs to be done, there's no way. We're going to have to deal with emergencies this winter."
The Energy Information Administration, a statistical division of the U.S. Department of Energy, projected last month that natural gas and heating oil will be at record highs this winter. In some cases, home heating oil, propane and kerosene is already twice as high as it was two years ago, meaning that a dollar of federal aid will not travel nearly as far this winter.
Making things worse is an economy that has left many more people without jobs, and left state treasuries bare.
Vermont budgeted $4 million to buttress federal Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program funds this winter, but that money has eroded along with the state economy, one official said.
"We were told nothing would be coming from state general fund dollars," said Richard Moffi, from Vermont's Office of Home Heating Fuel Assistance.
In Congress, members from the Northeast pressed unsuccessfully this summer to add billions to the LIHEAP program, which helps poor families with one-time fuel costs or a heating emergency, like a broken furnace. Last year, the federal government set aside $2.6 billion; this year President Bush has proposed just $2 billion, and it is unclear when Congress will act, or how much it will approve.
North Dakota got about $15.7 million in federal dollars last year. Ron Knutson, the state's energy assistance director, said about 15,000 households were eligible for home heating aid. Given the energy demands, that number could go up this year, he said.
Residents may begin applying Oct. 1, through county social services offices.
"We really believe that the feds will come through again. They always have in the past," said Tove Mandigo, director of the North Dakota Human Services Department's economic assistance policy division. Contingency funds have been added to the regular funding in other years to deal with severe weather, she said.
Connecticut legislators recently approved $44 million to help residents, schools and others with heating costs and weatherization while Vermont is trying to cull more firewood from state forests to heat homes.
Maine, which received $38 million last year from the federal government, would need $70 million just the deliver the same benefit in light of rising fuel prices, said Jo-Ann Choate, the manager of energy and housing services for the Maine State Housing Authority.
"This is a real crisis for the Northeast," she said.
Choate said many residents are carrying a past-due balance from last winter's bills.
On Tuesday, the EIA released data projecting that heating fuel expenditures for the average household using oil would increase 30 percent over last winter, and 19 percent for natural gas.
In northwest Montana, morning temperatures are dipping into the 30s. An elderly man who sought help from the nonprofit Northwest Montana Human Resources turned his furnace on twice in August and was stunned by a $70 bill.
"Conservation is the thing I'm stressing the most," said Northwest's Kimberly DeWitt, who has been distributing energy saving light bulbs, weather stripping and door sweeps paid for by a state program. "The increased energy costs are going to hit us all."
In Oregon, more people than ever have dialed community organizations seeking help. The nonprofit group Oregon HEAT added an unprecedented fundraiser in October - a golf outing - that it hopes will spread the message of need to business leaders, the group's executive director, Roger Rees, said.
Northern Wisconsin's Marinette County held its biggest fundraising effort ever this summer to buy propane for dozens of low income residents.
After she spent the end of last winter shivering in her Belle Vernon, Pa., mobile home, Cindy Cross sought help this summer at a county assistance office. But the 47-year-old nurses' assistant was told that her $617 take-home pay every two weeks is above the state's threshold, which is about $15,600 a year before taxes for a single adult.
The approach of winter brings more anxiety. A minimum kerosene shipment of 75 gallons would cost more than half of her paycheck, most of which is already burned by the gas, insurance and monthly payment for the car she needs for the 20-mile trip to work.
By March, she could no longer afford a fill-up, so she bought and electric space heater and spent some nights at a 24-hour McDonalds.
I'm basically just asking around, seeing what are my options for this winter," Cross said. "It might come down to the fact that I might leave this mobile home."
Moffi, of Vermont's Office of Home Heating Fuel Assistance, said cash help for people who rely on home-heating oil and other liquid fuels will run out quickly if LIHEAP does not get a big boost.
"They shouldn't start going cold until Christmas," Moffi said. "Maybe they'll be warm on Christmas Day, but the day after Christmas, that fuel will be gone." |
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Heating assistance available in S.D. |
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Most families across South Dakota are turning up their thermostats to combat dropping temperatures. For low-income families, however, cranking up the heat is not always an option. Low-income families pay 14 percent or more of their annual incomes for energy, compared with only 3.5 percent for non low-income families, according to a government agency that provides help.
Unable to pay gaping balances or hefty reconnection fees, some families are considering how they will survive this winter without heat.
The Weatherization Assistance Program of Northeast South Dakota Community Action might offer some area residents solutions. It was designed to help income eligible South Dakota households overcome energy costs by making their homes more energy efficient. It has been in operation since 1976.
Low-income residents in 17 counties might qualify for help. The counties include Beadle, Brown, Campbell, Day, Edmunds, Faulk, Hand, Hughes, Hyde, McPherson, Marshall, Potter, Roberts, Spink, Stanley, Sully and Walworth.
An energy audit is performed on homes that might be eligible and then work is done to stop energy leaks.
More information on the weatherization program is available by calling toll free 1-888-202-4855 or from www.nesdcap.org. |
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