OAKLAND — Funds have been released and checks recently went out to Garrett County senior citizens and others expecting benefits from the Maryland Energy Assistance Program, said Duane Yoder, president of Garrett County Community Action Committee Inc.
The energy assistance program provides benefits to low- to moderate-income residents who need help with home heating costs. About 150 senior residents in Garrett County are in dire need of heat, said Linda Green, director of services coordination for the community action committee.
“We got the checks out a couple of days after the permission to release the funds,” Yoder said.
The Community Action Committee was waiting for the green light to distribute about $1 million that has been deposited for its heating assistance energy program.
About 2,400 residents are precertified and all of those checks went out, Yoder said.
Yoder still has concerns about the winter heating season though, he said. Congress may cut the national budgets that fund the program by 25 percent.
“Now the big question is what are Congress and the president going to approve?” Yoder said. “I’m a little concerned about how people will deal with something that pinches you at the end of the year,” Yoder said.
Yoder said it’s difficult for him to budget for the program without knowing the final resolution of budget talks in Washington.
Garrett County has also been the victim of a complicated formula used to distribute Federal Emergency Management Agency Funds.
Garrett County won’t get that funding this year because their numbers made the county ineligible. The numbers are based on a variety of income and economic factors, he said.
About 5,000 families use the program each year in Allegany County. “It’s one of the larger single projects we run,” said Courtney Thomas, executive director of the Human Resources Development Commission.
In the past, the Garrett County energy assistance program has benefited about 3,000 households in Garrett County that got an average of about $550, according to Yoder.
The maximum reduction that the federal government can give is 40 percent, which would leave households with about $330.
The cost of coal has gone up to about $150 a ton and the cost of fuel and wood has also increased, officials said.
Contact Matthew Bieniek at mbieniek@times-news.com. Staff writer Elaine Blaisdell contributed to this story.
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