Office On Aging

After developing programs and assisting Howard County's senior citizens for 19 years, the director of the county's Office on Aging has announced that she will retire in November.The retirement of Vivian Reid, 70, of Catonsville comes as the Office on Aging is celebrating its 20th anniversary. Several events will be held next month to mark her retirement and the office's anniversary.Ms. Reid joined the Office on Aging after working with a statewide program for battered and neglected children in Connecticut.

The Rev. Donald Leslie Wassmann, a retired deputy director of the state Office on Aging and an early civil rights activist, died Wednesday of emphysema at Howard County General Hospital.Friends said Mr. Wassmann, who was 67, had lived a varied and adventurous life. He served as a naval radioman in World War II and participated in the 1965 voting rights demonstrations in Selma, Ala."He was very, very unusual," said Rosalie Silber Abrams, director of the Maryland Office on Aging.Ms. Abrams worked with Mr. Wassmann at the state office for nearly six years until his retirement in 1991.

In an attempt to better serve the county's estimated 18,000 senior citizens, the Office on Aging is reorganizing and expanding its services and programs for the elderly.The reorganization, most of which should be completed by October, will cost about $200,000 at the most, said Vivian Reid, administrator for the Office on Aging, adding those funds have already been appropriated in the county's budget."This has been two years in the planning," Ms. Reid said. In 1992, workers conducted a long-term study to determine how they could serve the growing elderly population by the year 2000, she said.

Although Harford County's Office on Aging assists about 300 people a year with in-home health care, nearly 100 people remain the waiting list for assistance, according to James Macgill Jr., the county director of aging.He characterizes in-home health services as the most critical need among Harford's elderly.The Office on Aging provides assistance with in-home aid -- which includes services such as nursing, meal preparation and help in dressing and bathing -- to homebound people who face being institutionalized if they don't have help with day-to-day living.

When Nancy Irani first visited Dr. Daniel Devlin in April for an initial consultation with the Ellicott City dentist, she was apprehensive."I was so nervous, I didn't want to sit in the chair," said the 58-year-old Columbia resident.With a limited income and a host of dental problems, the former teacher's aide had put off dental care for too long -- until she learned about the Reduced Fee Dental Program offered by the Howard County Office on Aging.The 10-year-old program, endorsed by the Howard County Dental Association, offers discount dental care to county residents over 60 and their spouses who are under 60.Dr.

If all goes according to plan, North Laurel and Savage senior citizens will be eating and socializing together at a county-run nutrition site in their community within a year.Yesterday, the County Council approved County Executive Charles I. Ecker's $82 million 1994 capital budget, which includes money for a nutrition site in the southeastern part of the county.County Council Chairwoman Shane Pendergrass, D-1st, said the money was originally part of the 1995 capital budget, but Mr. Ecker moved the project up a year at her request.

Three new organizations for the elderly are to be formed in Elkridge, Ellicott City and western Howard County. Jack Propf, the 65-year-old coordinator of the Project Care Program, said he hopes the groups will be formed by summer."

Welfare cuts will cost more in the long runSecretary of Human Resources Carolyn Colvin claims that her plan to cut welfare grants to families with children is meant to improve "client responsibility" - that is, get parents to do a better job of getting their kids to school and to the doctor.But The Evening Sun is closer to the truth when it states that the plan is "primarily budget driven" (editorial, Nov. 29) and based on the state's dwindling revenues.Yet even if we agree that saving tax dollars is the real reason behind the cuts, the plan will fail to realize its goal.

The registration deadline for the 1991 Maryland Senior Olympics is tomorrow. The Games will be held Oct. 10-12 at Towson State University.Athletes ages 55 and older will compete in events that include aquatics, archery, badminton, basketball, billiards, bowling, cycling, golf, horseshoes, racquetball, softball, table tennis, tennis and track and field.For a registration booklet, call the Maryland Office on Aging at 225-1094, or 1-800-AGE-DIAL outside the Baltimore area. The Games are sponsored by Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Maryland, and last year nearly 1,400 athletes competed.

The county Office on Aging has limited money available to help disabled individuals in obtaining assisting devices.An assisting device is any piece of equipment used to increase, maintain or improve thefunctional capabilities of individuals with disabilities.Information: 730-7697.