Department Of Aging

Department details bad-weather policy The county Department of Aging and Disabilities has announced its inclement weather policy. Residents are advised to listen to their radio or television during bad weather - especially radio station WNAV 1430-AM. If an announcement is made declaring that all Anne Arundel County offices are closed, so are all senior centers and nutrition sites. If the announcement states that county schools are closed, all activities at senior centers and nutrition sites are canceled, as well as lunch and transportation.

Jean Elizabeth Koons, a retired banker who began a second career as a job counselor with the Baltimore County Department of Aging, died in her sleep Saturday at Manor Care Ruxton. The former Timonium resident was 91. Miss Koons was born in Baltimore and raised in Forest Park. She dropped out of Forest Park High School after the ninth grade to go to work to help support her family. "It was because of the Depression," said niece Nancy C. Berry of Timonium. In 1943, Miss Koons began her career at Union Trust Co., working in the bank's proof department.

The Baltimore County Department of Aging is offering flu shots today at two senior centers. Shots will be available from 9 a.m. to 11 a.m. at the Pikesville Senior Center and 1 p.m. to 3 p.m. at the Reisterstown Senior Center. Shots are free for seniors with Medicare D or an HMO, and $25 for others. The department plans to offer flu shots at these locations: 9 a.m. to 11 a.m. Tuesday at the Overlea Senior Center. 1 p.m. to 3 p.m. Tuesday at the Fleming Senior Center in Turners Station.

Baltimore County's Department of Aging has secured an additional 2,400 doses of flu vaccine - an allotment that officials say will allow for three newly scheduled clinics at senior centers in the coming week. County officials said they used a key statistic in their pitch for the doses, which come through the efforts of the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and vaccine maker Aventis Pasteur to distribute the company's remaining supply. The average age of members of the county's senior centers is 76, and the county has more than 100,000 residents 65 and older, making the centers the perfect place to vaccinate those with the greatest need for shots, said Arnold Eppel, the director of the county Department of Aging.

Wanda Litch's students are having trouble with attachments. Not of the emotional sort; it's e-mail that is giving them trouble. Litch is teaching a group at the Catonsville Senior Center how to use the Internet. After a lifetime of talking on rotary telephones and sending letters, seniors are learning how to navigate the world of e-mail and instant messaging. Her students have mastered how to send e-mail. But they're having trouble with the more elaborate task of attaching files. Learning to use the Internet is one of the many activities that the county's nearly 140,000 seniors - the largest elderly population in the state, according to the county Department of Aging - are pursuing.

Fighting back tears, Debbie Amrhine had to pause before expressing her happiness for a new program that will give her elderly parents a chance to leave their home safely. Amrhine said her 76-year-old father, disabled by a stroke 35 years ago, has suffered deteriorating health since October and has been unable to leave his house in Carney except for doctor appointments. She called the new Baltimore County government program that builds entrance ramps at homes of low-income seniors in the county a "godsend."

When Bucky Kimmett was a college basketball star in the late 1940s and early 1950s, he was known for his sweet shooting. These days he can't jump quite as high, but he still has the touch. Kimmett, 75, and the other members of Towson's Bykota Senior Center team play basketball four times a week -- and they've competed several times in the Maryland and national Senior Olympics a number of times. Kimmett, a retired high school math teacher and coach who played decades ago at what is now Towson University, says the team members enjoy themselves, and still take the game seriously.

School board deals punishment unevenly Let me get this straight, Howard County School Board ("School officials win on appeal," May 25). Apparently, two county administrators who have been independently investigated are less likely to be disciplined than an Oakland Mills High School football coach who hasn't been proven guilty of anything and yet has been forced from his position. This whole situation smacks of good-old-boy politics and undue influence of the parties involved. I wonder if this situation occurred with an average classroom teacher whether the same courtesies would be afforded to them to clear their name.

Hoping to help baby boomers as they begin caring for aging parents, Baltimore County's Department of Aging is distributing nearly 200,000 copies of a CD-ROM designed to answer questions about assisted living, nursing homes, retirement communities and more. The free CD, called "Taking Care of Mom and Dad," provides information about the legal protections and resources available to senior citizens and about alternatives for continuing care. "If mom's in the hospital and I'm sitting up at 3 a.m. and worried about her and I can't sleep, now I have the ability to pop this CD in and do all my homework and at 8 a.m., go to work on choosing, making decisions and advocating," said Department of Aging Director Arnold Eppel.