Mayor Owen J. Quinn will be honored Nov. 1, by the Western Connecticut Area Agency on Aging for helping restore state funds that pay for a regional elderly nutrition program that includes Torrington’s Meals on Wheels and the City’s senior center lunch programs.
The cuts would have eliminated the program that home-delivers two meals per day to 500 seniors in Torrington and eliminated funding for lunches at the Sullivan Senior Center, said Nancy Gyurko, the City’s director of elderly services.
In September, Gyurko and other elderly services officials learned the state was going to eliminate $129,000 from the special nutrition program that provides thousands of meals to seniors in the WCAAA-Torrington service area, which includes 18 other surrounding towns.
When notified of what was about to happen to the senior meal programs, Mayor Quinn immediately began calling state officials at the state’s Department of Social Services as well as local state lawmakers.
“I’m honored that they want to give me this recognition,” Mayor Quinn said. “I’m glad we were able to convince the state to find money to assure it continues this year because we have hundreds of people that rely on those services. But I’m concerned about the next funding cycle, so we have more work to do.”
Mayor Quinn’s actions averted a potential disastrous situation for Torrington seniors, said Christina Fishbein, executive director of the Western Connecticut Area Agency on Aging.
“If we didn’t have the support of Mayor Quinn, Representative Willis and Senator Roraback, the state would not have realized the ramifications of what was going to happen and the complex fiscal and social issues involved here,” Fishbein said.
“Mayor Quinn has done a tremendous job and we wanted to say thank you to him,” Fishbein said.
Along with Mayor Quinn on Nov. 1, Torrington’s State Rep. Roberta Willis and State Sen. Andrew Roraback will also receive recognition from the WCAAA at its annual awards breakfast in Southbury at the Hilton Hotel.
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