Future of senior services addressed

To the editor,

It is a hard thing to admit that an error of omission and judgment caused eight months of concerted effort by several very dedicated hardworking people to come to naught. It is even harder to face when you realize that a mistake that you made could have a negative impact on all of the communities that make up Union County.

That your friends and extended family, your neighbors, the people you care about the most might face hardship or have a vital support service jeopardized by your ineptness is very humbling and very troubling.

It is a very hard thing to admit that you failed the senior citizens of Union County, people you promised to help by establishing a local provider team to administrate the federally funded program funneled through the Egyptian Area Agency on Aging, EAAA.

It is hard to know that you must face your friends who were counting on you to make things better and admit that because of a careless omission to file a document on time that effort failed.

Today that is exactly the position that I find myself. Because of an oversight on my part, Senior Services for Union County was not properly registered as a 501(c) 3 not-for-profit corporation with the IRS and as a result could not be named the local provider for 2009-2010 by EAAA.

This missed step meant that we could not qualify in time to be awarded provider status. The harsh and hard facts are that I was solely responsible for this. I let my team down. I let the Union County commissioners and the citizens of the county who so generously agreed to provide additional funding for the program through the tax levy down by not insuring that local oversight would be provided.

But most of all to my friends and neighbors I made an error and you must pay the price. The face I see in the mirror finds that very hard to accept. And yet there it is a hard fact, a harsh truth.

To their credit, the board of directors of the Egyptian Area Agency on Aging has found an eligible provider to supervise the grant administration so that services for senior citizens and the meal service at the Sunshine Inn and Meals on Wheels can continue.

It is also to their credit that they have agreed to reopen the bidding process next year when as a properly registered not-for-profit corporation, SSUNinc, can bid to become the local provider and can put in place the program we worked so hard to develop.

The program will continue without interruption. The senior citizens will have local access to a vital service that helps to keep them living in their homes and remain a vital part of our communities. A potential disaster has been averted.

It is also to the credit of the men and women who make up the board of directors of Senior Services for Union County, even frustrated and disappointed as they are, have committed themselves to correcting the oversight and continue to do what is necessary to complete the organizational structuring that will enable us to be a legitimate service provider when the next round of bidding is announced.

For myself I can only offer my most sincere apology to all of you. As hard as it is to admit I dropped the ball, for that I am truly sorry. I hope in time that you can forgive me. Perhaps as I work to undo the damage, I can forgive myself.

Sincerely, Pete Housman, Jonesboro