Elizabeth Wojciechowski was 70 the last time she marched on city hall, demanding something for the Ansonia senior center.
Twelve years later, at 82, Wojciechowski is willing to do it again.
Wojciechowski and several other members of the Joseph A. Doyle Senior Center are planning to protest cuts to the center’s budget next week before the Board of Apportionment and Taxation meeting.
At the meeting, Director Maureen Bennett is scheduled to address the tax board about her concerns with the budget cuts.
Bennett said the cuts leave the center with only one full-time person — something she said is not feasible for the center’s needs.
“I think we’re the forgotten child,” Bennett said of the cuts, which bring the department’s budget from $140,000 to $70,000 next year.
Picketing Seniors
The first time Ansonia seniors marched on City Hall — picket signs and all — was in 1998, when Bennett was laid off from the position as senior center director due to union bumps from above.
“They were angry,” Bennett said. “When they get angry: Unfiltered talk.”
Bennett spent the past 12 years working in other city departments and returned to the senior center this spring.
Wojciechowski said she’s willing to march again if it might help get more money for the senior center.
“Why not?” Wojciechowski asked. “I’m very upset about it.”
The Budget
The approved budget will mean the director’s assistant and the center’s custodian will likely be dropped down to part-time employees.
The transportation budget has also been reduced to half its current state, Bennett said.
That helps pay for seniors to go on weekly supermarket shopping trips, or get to and from the center when they can’t drive.
But it’s the lack of two full-time people in the office that worries Bennett, and Mary Deptula, the assistant who stands to lose her job from the center.
About 60 people on average visit the center each day, Bennett said.
“There truly needs to be a full-time person here,” Bennett said.
The Need
Bennett highlighted the many medical needs of the senior center members — saying one day she was working alone, she had to call two ambulances within minutes of each other because of medical emergencies.
Bennett said she wasn’t even sure what was wrong when she called the first ambulance — she only heard members from down the long hallway yelling for someone to call for an ambulance.
It turns out a 92-year-old man fell and broke his hip.
“It those things that are happening that you can’t schedule a part-time person around,” Bennett said. “Accidents happen at unscheduled times.”
There are also frequent trips with seniors that a full-time employee must go on, leaving the center potentially unstaffed during those hours, Bennett said.
Deptula said she’ll end up bumping a less-senior member of the union if her position is reduced to part-time, but said she’s upset at what might happen at the senior center.
“It’s a little more than just answering the phones,” Deptula said of the position. “A lot more.”
The Reality
Bennett has already appealed to the Board of Aldermen.
Acting Mayor Stephen Blume said he understood the plight, but that in the tough economic times the city had to make sacrifices.
“These are bad times here,” Blume said during the last Board of Aldermen meeting. “Perhaps if you’re on a trip and you’ve got 40 people with you, you close the center.”
