With a legislative turnover pending in November, House Speaker Mark Eves, D-North Berwick, told a Bangor audience Thursday night that voters will have a key role in pushing forward policies that support Mainers seeking to age safely in their communities. Mainers face a number of challenges as they age, including access to affordable housing alternatives, public transportation, in-home services and ongoing opportunities to engage in their communities.
“It’s your job to keep the heat on so we can pass meaningful legislation in the next two years,” he said to a crowd of about 60, many of whom were near retirement age or older, at a public forum at Husson University in Bangor.
Eves is term-limited in the Maine House and will leave the Legislature at the end of this year.
Bangor was the fifth stop on Eves’ statewide senior listening tour, aimed at building voter support for age-friendly policy-making and engaging local residents in planning and problem-solving in their own communities.
“My hope and my goal is that every community in this state has some sort of planning process in place [to accommodate the needs of aging residents],” Eves told his audience.
And while state and federal policies are essential to the process, he stressed that grass-roots groups and local leaders must do the work of assessing specific needs and devising strategies for meeting them.
Along with Sen. David Burns, R-Whiting, who is not participating in the listening tour, Eves is the author of the KeepMEHome initiative, aimed at creating more affordable senior housing, increasing pay for in-home care providers and expanding property tax credits for low-income seniors. The initiative grew out a series of bipartisan discussions in Augusta, he told the audience, that not only engaged lawmakers, state agencies and nonprofit organizations that serve Maine seniors but also municipalities, financial institutions, educators, public safety officials and everyday citizens affected by Maine’s aging demographic.
The result, he said, has been a broad-based understanding of the challenges of aging in Maine, particularly in the state’s far-flung rural areas.
While the KeepMEHome initiative is a start, Eves said, it’s important for Mainers to engage directly with the challenges they face.
Audience members, who came from Bangor and surrounding towns, offered questions and comments, confirming the need for more affordable housing options, caregiver support and transportation services but also raised other issues.
“The closing of the Hammond Street Senior Center was a terrible loss to the city,” Brewer resident Lola Bullion, 87, said. She credited the center, which closed its doors late last year, with providing critical opportunities for socialization and engagement and said every community should have a similar facility.
Lou Bain, 76 of Orono said seniors volunteers in that town are actively engaged in providing transportation, home visits and other services to support their older neighbors. “But when you’re in your 70s and 80s, you can’t do all this organizing,” she said. “Isn’t there something you can do to get younger people involved?”
Jeanne Curran of Bangor, a former editor at the Bangor Daily News, stressed the need to attract younger people to Maine and suggested providing free college education through the public university and community college systems. “That would bring in young people, families and businesses,” she said. “Education is the key.” She pointed out that Maine seniors already can take classes for free through the University of Maine system and the community colleges.
Retired physician Allan Currie of Bangor said he is impressed with amount of work being accomplished by volunteers and small nonprofit groups who provide support services to seniors.
“But they’re all running on a shoestring,” he said. “Health care in this country is really in trouble, but it would be impossible without the work of volunteers doing the work they do. They really need funding.”
Seniors also are impacted by the rising costs of health insurance, annual deductibles and prescription drugs, Randy Tompkins, 55, of Brewer said. “The greatest threat to not being able to stay in their homes is the cost of health care,” he said.
Eves responded to many of the comments and questions, and his staff took notes.
On Friday, Sen. Burns said he applauds Eves for conducting the listening tour and agrees it’s important to keep the issue of aging on the front burner in Augusta.
Burns, who also will leave office at the end of this year, said there is broad bipartisan support in the Legislature for adopting policies that support older Mainers.
“This issue affects all people, regardless of social or economic status,” he said. “I am glad the speaker is continuing on his tour.”
The next stop on Eves’ listening tour will be at 9 a.m. Thursday, Sept. 29, in Tewksbury Hall, 13 Island Avenue in Skowhegan. Additional forums are scheduled for Oct. 4 in Sanford and on Oct. 12 in Greenville, Milo and Dover-Foxcroft.
