Lorain County Office on Aging

Aging & Disability Resource Network

(ADRN)

The Western Reserve Area Agency on Aging (WRAAA) has formally launched the Aging and Disability Resource Network (ADRN).  This Network is composed of a group of offices on aging and non-profit organizations with professional staff who can guide older adults, caregivers and persons with disabilities to services that support independence.

The ADRN is the starting point for answers to questions about available community services and supports that can help when the independence of an older adult or person with a disability is challenged.  Ohio's long-term care network is complex and fragmented.  Figuring out how to obtain long-term services and supports can be confusing and difficult to navigate.  The ADRN provides a new system that offers Northeast Ohio residents a single, consistent, reliable way to access the array of services by making one phone call.

Low-Income Columbia Gas Customers Receive Additional Bill Payment Assistance

 Residential customers having difficulty paying their Columbia Gas of Ohio bills received a much-needed boost today after eligibility for a fuel fund was expanded.

Responding to a request initiated by the Office of the Ohio Consumers’ Counsel (OCC) and supported by Columbia Gas of Ohio, the Public Utilities Commission of Ohio (PUCO) staff and others, the PUCO ordered fuel funds from an interstate pipeline supplier refund be made available to any household with an income up to 200 percent of the federal poverty guidelines. Previously, the income eligibility guidelines were much more restrictive and limited to consumers who may not have qualified for other assistance programs.

“This is welcome news to low-income Columbia Gas consumers,” Consumers’ Counsel Janine Migden-Ostrander said. “With an anticipated reduction in federal funding of programs like HEAP (Home Energy Assistance Program), it is critical that every available dollar from the pipeline refund be used to help consumers avoid getting behind in natural gas payments and to stay connected to their natural gas service this winter.”