T-L Photo/ROBERT A. DEFRANK Senior Services of Belmont County officials join the county commissioners Wednesday to mark Older Americans Month and give an update on agency activities. The farmers market voucher program will also go into effect soon. Pictured are Commissioner Josh Meyer, from left, Karen Divjak, retiring a consumer service representative, Commissioners J.P. Dutton and Jerry Echemann, and Senior Services Director Lisa Kazmirski.

ST. CLAIRSVILLE — On Wednesday the Belmont County Board of Commissioners recognized May as Older American Month and heard an update from Lisa Kazmirski, director of Senior Services of Belmont County about the agency’s activities and services.

“Senior Services of Belmont County provides home-delivered meals, medical transportation, 10 staffed senior centers throughout the county, and some home anchoring and personal care services that we contract with other providers to do,” she said. “In March we served 1,524 people. That’s up from three to five years ago. That continues to grow.”

Kazmirski said the agency has 72 employees.

“Nine cooks start at 6 a.m. every day and produce over 1,200 meals,” she said.

Kazmirski said with the waning of the COVID-19 pandemic, she anticipates some changes in eligibility for services as mandated by the state.

“The public health emergency is set to expire May 11, so with that, our flexibility with rules is expiring, so we have to tighten things back up. We can’t just say that somebody can get a home-delivered meal because they’re afraid if they leave the house they’ll get COVID, that’s not going to be one of the options anymore.”

She said people must be Belmont County residents 60 years of age or older to be eligible for services.

Commissioner J.P. Dutton spoke about the agency’s services.

“Something we’ve stressed during the pandemic and that bears repeating as this is ending is at the height of the pandemic when individuals were isolated, it was really in some cases … the drivers that were delivering meals were the only interaction that some of these individuals had,” he said. “It served as a well-check for many individuals. The directors of our senior centers were making phone calls to individuals who were not leaving their homes and checking on them, sometimes on a daily basis. Staff went above and beyond.”

Dutton said there are 14,000 Belmont County residents older than 65.

Kazmirski said food deliveries also serve as home checkups for seniors living alone.

“There are a lot of things behind the scenes that senior services just tries to do quietly to take care of our elderly residents,” she said. “Some of it is financially based and some of it is not. There’s a lot of reasons why people need our services.”

She said pre-pandemic, more than 4,000 people visited the senior centers daily, and during the pandemic the only contact for many was a voice on a phone. She said numbers are now about 3,000.

“COVID changed the world, and some people are still leery about that,” she said. “But to get people the connections they need, senior services has to be ready, and always aware of what our citizens need.”

She introduced Karen Divjak, a consumer service representative who has been with Senior Services for 17 years and will be retiring in two weeks.

“Every manager that’s been through Senior Services has much respect for Karen, including myself. In the past year, I’ve learned a wealth of information from asking her,” Kazmirski said. “I think it very appropriate that she gets to represent the agency today.”

Dutton thanked her.

“We very much appreciate your time of service to the county,” Dutton said. “It’s a wonderful program, a wonderful department, and lives are touched every single day.”

Bob Dombrowski of St. Clairsville commended the agency, saying his mother has benefitted from home-delivered meals.

Dutton also said the county residents have been supportive of the agency. He noted senior services once had three levies and two years ago they were able to remove one of the levies in gratitude to the taxpayers.

Kazmirski also updated the commissioners on preparations for the annual Farmer’s Market. Her agency works with the Area Agency on Aging Region 9, which contacts the Ohio Department of Aging to distribute farmer’s market vouchers to counties each year.

“A person is then if they’re eligible, they’re entitled to 10 $5 gift cards to use at local farmers markets in Belmont County. We were allotted 257,” she said. “Those have already been taken up, so people know every year farmer’s market’s coming up, so they start calling and they start going to their senior center and asking, so all of those are used up, so we literally yesterday asked for that much more. Now we may not get that many more, but if other counties do not use them, they’ll redistribute.”

Kazmirski said there are financial eligibility requirements.

“You have to make less than I think maybe $2,700 a month,” she said, adding that many elderly make less than $1,000.

The senior services office is located at 45240 National Road West, St. Clairsville and can be reached at 740-695-4142.