OCR Text |
Show Conference held here Monday by State Council on Aging City and county officials and members of the Springrille-Mapleton Springrille-Mapleton Senioi Citizens organization or-ganization were in attendance Monday at Memorial Hall at a conference called by the State Council on Aging. Purpose of the meeting, one of several held in the county, was to make a survey of problems prob-lems facing senior citizens and to get opinions on the best type of programs. The state officials were trying to determine deter-mine what type of programs were most needed by this age group. The conference was thrown open to questions and discussion. One of the major problems taken up was how senior citizens cit-izens could meet the problem ol inflation. It was pointed out that the income of many who depended solely on social security se-curity had not kept pace with the cost of living. In particular was this true in regard to medicine. med-icine. Some individuals, it was pointed out, have had to pay as much as $50 per month for prescriptions. A comparison was made of transportation furnished children chil-dren of all ages to school and school activities with that afforded af-forded senior citizens who have nc means of transportation or can't drive a car. This was a major problem, it was noted, especially is it true in outlying c'istricts. There is a movement underway under-way now to organize a pilot operation to give older people free medical checkups, it was stated at the meeting. Many older people dc not have ;heck-ups ;heck-ups at present for two reasons: first, they are afraid of what they will find, and second, they cannot afford it. The conference was called to order by A. I. Tippetts, director direc-tor of the Springville-Mapleton organization. Dr. Melvin White, executive director of the State Council on Aging, Di. Willis and Mr. Bowen of Salt Lake City and Mrs. Thatcher of Prove were among officials present, including five members of the Springville City Council and representatives of the ccunty commission. Dr. James R. Barton of the Brigham Young University told members of the Women's Legislative Leg-islative Council: "Since the coming of the Pioneers in the early 1800's, Utah Lake has slowly but surely gone downhill. down-hill. Once flourishing with trout there are no trout now and imported im-ported carp is the dominant fish." Dr. Barton was followed by Dr. Jerald S. Bradshaw, an expert ex-pert on pesticides, whe explained explain-ed the role of pesticides in adding ad-ding to lake pollution. Both are co-workers of Dr. David White, assistant professor of zoology at BYU, who originally was scheduled to be guest speaker at the meeting held last week. Mrs. Richard Call, health chairman, introduced the speakers speak-ers and was in charge of the meeting. Mrs. Dee Olpin, president, presi-dent, conducted. A special flag ceremony and inspiring message mes-sage was under the direction of Maurice Watts, adjutant general gen-eral of the Utah National Guard. |