Thursday 11/01/2007 DAILY NEWS DIGEST

MONTGOMERY — With the number of senior citizens in the state set to eclipse the 18-and-under set by 2020, the East Alabama delegation of the Silver-Haired Legislature was hard at work during its annual legislative session.

The delegation, which is drawn from the member counties of the East Alabama Regional Planning and Development Commission, was able to pass nine resolutions on issues it believes will be key to improving the quality of life for seniors in the state.

Two of those resolutions were elevated to a list of top-five senior issues for the entire Silver-Haired Legislature.

One resolution asks the Alabama Legislature to increase funding for the Department of Senior Services by $2.09 million.

The money would be used to eradicate the waiting list of more than 3,300 seniors hoping to get into the state’s Homebound Meals program.

The program is administered through the various area agencies on aging, said Silver-Haired Legislator Rep. Charles Rogers of Oak Grove.

“Of that list, there are thousands who aren’t on the list,” said the 72-year-old former mayor and delegation chairman for the East Alabama Silver-Haired legislators.

“For some seniors the meal they receive through the Homebound Meals program is the only meal they get for the day,” he said.

Most of the priority resolutions model legislators took up focused on keeping seniors in the state healthy and independent.

Rep. Bloise Zeigler, the eldest member of the body at 95, sponsored a resolution that asks for more money for the Department of Rehabilitation Services for the Oasis program, which provides services to seniors with little or no vision.

His resolution was also adopted as a top-five senior issue for the body.

Zeigler, also a former mayor, has been using the program’s services since he lost most of his sight to macular degeneration.

He said it was pure luck that he found out that the state offered such a service, and more people should know about it.

“We know that only 2 percent of people in the state who need these services are being served, but we can’t promote it too much because we don’t have enough money to help them all,” he said. “When you lose your eyesight and you don’t have anybody to help you, you lose your independence, your desire to live.

“With the number of elderly people growing in this state, we’ve got to do what we can to help them. They deserve it.”

That includes providing home or community-based care instead of nursing home care, increasing the monthly personal-needs allowance if a person does go into a nursing home, and appropriating funding to the University of Alabama for adult stem cell research.

The legislators were moved to pass a resolution of support on the controversial issue of stem cell research after hearing the story of a Montgomery woman, Carron Morrow, whose life was saved after stem cells harvested from her own bone marrow were injected into her heart.

Morrow has suffered four heart attacks since the age of 39, and was on a heart transplant list before she got into a trial study for adult stem cell research.

“This is a brave group of people,” she said of the legislators. “People don’t know the difference between adult and embryonic stem cell research, and I applaud this group for taking this step and saying, ‘Let’s get on with it.’”

Silver-Haired Legislature Rep. Betty Jacks, a 72-year-old retired Regional Medical Center nurse, said it’s a part of what she does to help fellow seniors out.

“This is part of my work,” said the three-term legislator from Oxford.