LINCOLN, Maine — Recent cuts to federal and state fuel-aid programs have town Treasurer Gilberte Mayo convinced that Lincoln’s heating assistance program will see more customers this winter, Mayo said Friday.
“Just in the last month since it started getting cold, we have gotten eight or 10 requests already, so I think going forward that’s just the tip of the iceberg,” Mayo said. “This is going to be a hard season for everybody and I think this heating [fund] is going to need all the donations it can get.”
The total fund had about $9,797 as of Oct. 31, with seven applicants getting $2,528 in assistance. As of Friday, the largest single heating donation came from Mainely Rent to Own, which donated $500.
Christine Manley, Paul and Linda Labrecque, and Elsie Young Nowell donated $100 per person or couple. William and Kathy Lawrence donated $50, according to the list Mayo compiled.
As of Monday, the average cash price for No. 2 heating oil statewide was $3.67 per gallon, up 3 cents from the previous week, according to the Governor’s Energy Office. The statewide price ran from $3.38 to $3.91 per gallon. The price in northern Maine was $3.80 to $3.85 per gallon.
Since then-Town Manager Glenn Aho proposed and the Town Council approved the program in 2006, 98 local families have received home heating aid, town records show. The busiest year was 2009, when 31 families received $7,470 in home heating donations through the program.
The donation fund program is designed to supplement federal and state heating assistance programs for Lincoln residents who do not qualify for other aid. Anyone interested in securing aid or making a donation can call Mayo at 794-3372 or see her in the town office on Main Street.
As of February 2012, the total program donations were $5,625 for that season, including a $2,000 grant from the United Way of Eastern Maine. Of the $5,625, $4,309 went to 12 Lincoln families, or about 29 people, to help them secure about 1,100 gallons of fuel oil, Mayo said.
The program serves only Lincoln residents, with single-parent and elderly households getting first preference. The households must have less than a quarter-tank of fuel and show proof of need. No more than 100 gallons of assistance will go to a family per season, the guidelines state.
People who were buying fireworks last summer were spending $100-$400,-$700 dollars on a trip to the fireworks store. How many are crying poor, they cant afford heat now?
Fireworks?….time to move on.
He can’t. He is obsessed with fireworks and weed.
The poor lack the skills of ‘deferred gratification’,
You cant see the relationship between buying fireworks in the summer and not having money to buy heat in winter?
Fireworks,booze,POT,butts,snowmobiles,ATVs,etc, the ‘poor’ spends alot of money on vices all year round. Come time to buy a necessary?the poor has no money.
Eventually all the government freebies will come to end.
” The busiest year was 2009, when 31 families received $7,470 in home heating donations through the program.”
Fireworks were not legal in ’09, so no, I do not see your relationship between the two.
This tells me that you southern Maine folks, well known media people included, have zero knowledge of central and northern Maine.
I make barely above minimum wage. My significant other barely makes minimum wage. We did little in April,May,and June, except watch TV, because we took extra money in to 2 1/2 months of checks durig those months, to buy oil in June….Knowing winter was 4 months away.
The welfare houses ,the several HUGE welfare trailer parks and welfare complexes in SKowtown, like all of northern and central Maine communities, were all setting off fireworks every night.
Jan 1 st , i am an official Cape Cod resident. I am sick and tired of the welfare poor blowing money all year then crying poor for heat handouts. I look forward to reading about Maine goes into State receivership in the future.
Now that the BDN is allowing us to see all of a given commenters posts over time………a very interesting pattern is appearing. Sort of a “cyber-pscho profile”. Skowheganresident…….you are at best a single minded individual.
Now i gotta toot my own horn with a response like that. . A very well known media person in Southern Maine said ‘[i ] was the most knowledgeable person about what is going on in Central and Northern Maine
Cuts to Federal Aid, tell me it isn’t so. Maine did vote for Obama. Guess you get what you ask for.