ST. CLAIRSVILLE – Senior Services of Belmont County was unable to provide meals on Monday due to hazardous winter conditions.

Despite the harsh temperatures,executive director Lisa Kazmirski confirmed that residents who receive meals from the agency would continue to receive meals from Wednesday morning on.

“We’re also taking an extra chicken pot pie to everyone who gets a meal today [Wednesday] so that they can microwave it if need be,” Kazmirski said. “We’ve been getting a lot of calls and a lot of comments on Facebook about how come they’re closed and they get their four day weekend. Well, that’s not the case, because we worked a little extra before, and we work a whole lot extra after. In situations like this, managers are still at the office. We were at Sam’s Club Tuesday shopping. So things happen behind the scenes that most of the public will never see, but we are out there to take care of the seniors, not to get time off for ourselves.”

Belmont County commissioner Vince Gianangeli asked Kazmirski if the agency provides frozen meals for residents it serves.

She replied that only if the resident is deemed a passport family. According to the Ohio Department of Aging, a passport case is a Medicaid waiver program that helps Medicaid-eligible older Ohioans get the long-term services and support they need to stay in their homes or other community settings, rather than enter nursing homes.

Kazmirski said that a resident’s case worker is who determines if they would be declared a passport family.

“If their level of care dictates that they also need meals on the weekends, they get two frozen meals and we deliver those on Thursdays, just in case something happens on a Friday, so they have the extra and in some cases,” Kazmirski said. “There were some calls that I took where people were questioning where their meal was and I had to say that we can’t get to you, we’re closed today. The question is then, where do we refer next? Because if someone is so dependent on our one to one meal per day that’s delivered Monday through Friday, and they’re so dependent that they call three or four times when it’s not coming. The question is, should they still be living alone in their home? So we try to make referrals.”

She added that the CARES Program helps Senior Services with those referrals as well as referring residents to the Area Agency on Aging Region 9.

She said once the Area Agency on Aging Region 9 is contacted someone from the agency will conduct an in-home assessment to determine if they are in need of regular assistance in the home.

“We have to look at the big picture in each household and see if the meal is sufficient,” Kazmirski said.

She added that 1,200 meals are delivered every day in trucks that have hot and cold boxes on the back of them, so that the temps can be held at the proper temperatures for the food for seven hours. She said that each route takes seven hours for the driver to complete.

Commissioner J.P. Dutton said that he thinks county residents should be very proud of how the county treats both those in advanced age as well as youth.

“The reason for that is there’s levies in both situations, both for Children’s Services and Senior Services, and the voters continue to support those each time for renewal, and what our promise back to them is that we’re going to use those funds as effectively and efficiently as possible,” Dutton said.

Gianangeli said that he remembers when Senior Services used to deliver 800 meals per day and he thought that number would be difficult to achieve.

“It’s crazy how it’s grown from 800 to 1,200. I remember when it got to 900 we thought that’s a lot, how is it going to be done,” Gianangeli said.”Well you got to buy more trucks and hire more people.”