The Observation Deck

With my mom and dad's limited finances, and both physically unable to do much, add in us taking care of our little one...it seems "help" is really sparce for people like my mom and dad. My mother was a "head honcho" all my school years, with PTA, and all those things the '50s mothers did.

My dad worked long hours but was there for me..all my school years too.
Now...as time continues forward, they need any help they can get.

That help is 1) Very difficult to come by, if at all, and 2) It's more found elsewhere than in our city.

In my humble opinion, we need a guide to service people and programs who would cut people like my mom and dad...the ones that hung out at the restaurants and schools..who paid taxes for ages... for breaks on things like getting the house painted, or a new roof, or a super break on a used car. (For anyone over 50 that can't handle the full ticket for a decent car)

As a member of the Class of '68..looking foward was a thing I never did much..but now with our little one, I look forward, and see
that yes. we THOUGHT we were prepared for later years. ...but the impossible happened, and 9/11 took out our business and any extra funds that up untill that time was helping my mom and dad out as well as us.

Things can happen to anyone.

There really isn't much of a place to turn..and loving Lakewood as our whole family does..since my grandparents settled here from the "old country"...and we've been here since...it just seems that
there should be some kind of "help" to some degree for those that used to be the ones that DID the helping..and now, the pendulum should be able to swing back and not ignore.

I don't mean to sound like I'm whining. This posting came from us needing a simple thing like our lawn cut, since our mower gave out, and we called aorund and some of the prices were just out of hand.

We needed a part of the roof replaced, and they got a 2% senior citizen discount or something like that, which amounted to just about nothing.

We all are approaching that age, eventually, and while most of Lakewood seems prepared financially, (or so the view from our end appears) .. there are those of us who thought we were, and the story changed..by a quirk of fate.

The moral to this story....

With all the excellent projects being born in our city, maybe a few dollars or a creative project could be established for breaks for the people like my mom and dad. There were alot of their crowd, and even a bit younger too, and there still is....but the breaks don't seem to be there. A break from a used car lot..or a roofer..or a plumber...etc etc?

Any comments?

Mark

Have you called the city? The city has many great programs to help seniors maintain a house. I know that if they had listed their house as historic they would have recieved 25% back from the city, and the state is thinking of bring that up to 50%.

Two threads here about it one by DL Meckes and one from Mark Tiemski.
http://lakewoodobserver.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=2185

As for the lawn mower where did you take it? Helmans is gone but I know a couple places to fix gas mowers. One on Lorain just west of East Coas Custard.

Our neighbors are into bulk buys. 5 driveways at a time. This summer we are doing 7 roofs in the area. Earlu on in this project we had tried to launch the Emerald Canyon Co-Op which was bulk buying everything from services to paint. We are still looking but as you know LO has a lot on our plate.

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One of the problems is that while many seniors are of limited means, many others are perfectly capable of paying full retail...and often do. It's tough for a businessperson to be selective in offering discounts. If I offered your parents a 20 percent discount on a particular service, I'd legally have to offer it to Dick Jacobs, too. And since my costs would be the same whether my client is 40 or 70, the only thing I can offer is 2 percent, "just to be nice."

That's why dealing with issues like you describe are best handled on a truly personal, micro level. In many cases, that involves churches. They tend to know who needs the help and can be helpful in the "networking" process/

In others, it just goes to doing the legwork to find that particular tradesman or service provider, usually a sole proprietor, who can be more flexible with his or her rates. In other words, less the Yellow Pages and more the bulletin board at Drug Mart.

In other cases, it may mean saving money in one, negotiable area to make up for another area which is strictly retail.

I don't mean to sound cold or intellectualizing. I have been involved in my elderly parents' care for many years. Their finances are OK, not lavish, but it's still a struggle to help them stretch their dollars as much as possible. I've been there, and I'm still there. Good luck.

Mark-

The city is addressing the problem of marketing the various programs that folks like your parents can use.

Meanwhile, pleae call the Department of Community Development at 216.529.HOME (4663). There are a number of programs that can help with home repair, etc. Even painting a house is addressed (although it's too late for this year). http://www.ci.lakewood.oh.us/dept_planning_cdbg.html

Please call. They can also help you figure out if some county or county-wide programs would fit your needs.

But I also think you're right to wish for a senior discount list. Lots of stores have specials, but there's no one guide that I'm aware of to collect all the information.

Another great department is the Health and Human Services Department of Aging: http://www.ci.lakewood.oh.us/human_aging_main.html.

dl meckes wrote:But I also think you're right to wish for a senior discount list. Lots of stores have specials, but there's no one guide that I'm aware of to collect all the information.

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You sure about this.

Our neighbors are into bulk buys. 5 driveways at a time. This summer we are doing 7 roofs in the area.

I guess you can tell I'm new to the board by my number of posts. This is the first time I've seen the co-op idea, looks great. Is there still time to get in on the roof project? Is there a list of local contractors that board members have used and will recommend?