Senior Citizens

Today's highlights 10 a.m. Senate meets, Senate chamber. 10 a.m. House of Delegates meets, House chamber. 1 p.m. House Economic Matters Committee, hearing on prescription drug program for senior citizens, Room 150, Lowe House Office Building.

`Oliver!' -- Shadow Block Productions will present its last two performances of the musical Oliver! at 8 p.m. today and tomorrow at Drama Learning Center, 9130 Red Branch Road, Columbia. Tickets to the production, based on Charles Dickens' classic novel Oliver Twist, are $15; $12 for senior citizens, students and groups. Reservations are recommended. 410-997-9352.

The Columbia Association plans to conclude its survey of senior citizens next week, so it is offering Columbia residents older than 60 two more opportunities to voice their opinions.Topics such as public safety, employment and volunteer opportunities, housing, transportation and social activities are on the agenda for meetings Monday at East Columbia Senior Center, 6600 Cradlerock Way, and Nov. 6 at Florence Bain Senior Center, 5470 Ruth Keeton Way. Both meetings are from 10 a.m. to 12: 30 p.m."

Services for Lillie Gertrude Smith, a Park Heights woman who became an active volunteer with senior citizens' programs after retiring as a cook, will be at 7:30 p.m today at the Church of God, 4310 Edmondson Ave.Mrs. Smith died Friday at Sinai Hospital after a heart attack. She was 80.From 1931 to 1961, Mrs. Smith worked as a housekeeper and cook for the Philip Needle and Milton Haas families, both of Baltimore. For the next 15 years, she was the cook at All Saints Convent in Catonsville.

Construction has started on Carroll's first low-income, assisted-living community for senior citizens.Ridge Residences will allow seniors to live semi-dependently in their own apartments, but the 80-unit complex will feature a central kitchen and dining hall available toall residents, said John T. Hanson, president of the board of Ridge Residences Inc.The kitchen is being built for 25 elderly residents who are in a special category called "fragile elderly,"...

The Howard County Board of Appeals has approved an addition to a house so that the owner can open a group-care facility in West Friendship.The two-story facility for five to 15 senior citizens on Buttercup Court near Route 144 will open by the end of June or in early July, said owner Mark Wah.The board on Tuesday night voted 5-0 for the addition of bedrooms, exercise and sitting areas."

MEDICARE is facing a new attack that threatens to replace the universal health coverage system that now serves America's elderly with a multitiered approach based on ability to pay.The Medicare Beneficiary Freedom to Contract Act, sponsored by Sen. Jon Kyl, an Arizona Republican, would allow doctors and senior citizens to contract for medical care at rates above those set by Medicare. It would permit doctors to charge senior citizens higher fees than now allowed for services already covered by Medicare.

Fees a burden on senior citizens Mrs. Owens' [proposals for] increasing fees for trash collection and water and sewer usage seem to be yet another onerous burden on the taxpayer. These regressive taxes by both Mrs. Owens and the state (flush fees and auto registration) are particularly egregious to seniors on a fixed income. Those of us in A.A. County who are on septic systems are now forced to pay a "flush fee" in addition to the waste hauler fee we pay every time our septic system is pumped out. We pay a far larger share of our income for these fees (taxes)

Erickson Retirement Communities, based in Catonsville, received the National Association of Home Builders' 2001 "Icons of the Industry Award" for its leadership in developing communities for senior citizens. The NAHB award was presented to Erickson on Friday at the Seniors Housing Symposium in Phoenix. Erickson was cited for its "exemplary development of service-enriched seniors housing," according to a company statement. Erickson manages three retirement campuses for moderate-income senior citizens in Maryland: Charlestown, Oak Crest Village and Riderwood Village.

One of the greatest human achievements of the 20th century is the gift of longer life. Americans are living 30 years longer than they did in the early 1900s, and this century is projected to be the first in which the old will outnumber the young. By the time the entire baby-boom generation reaches retirement age, doubling the number of senior citizens to 70 million, the country's demographics will mirror Florida's today. The era of old age is here: Demographers estimate that half of all human beings who ever lived beyond the age of 65 in the history of this planet are alive right now. As life spans stretch to new lengths, more Americans are spending an entire third of their lives as senior citizens.