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Show HEAT May Warm By TOM BL'SSELBERG FARMINGTON -- As the thermometer dips even lower, that creats some added worries to hundreds of Davis County residents. THAT MEANS many senior citizens, large families with a "tight" income or those families fami-lies currently without a steady job income. There is help, to a point, from the Utah Home Energy Assistance Target Program, or HEAT. In fact. Bryan PoVey. energy ener-gy assistance coordinator with the state assistance payments office in Layton, will be working work-ing full-time processing requests re-quests from residents throughout through-out the county. HOW DO you qualify? Specific Spe-cific income guidelines have been set up, ranging from those earning less than $8,400 a year and living alone to about $18,500 for households of five and higher amounts available for larger familes. Some 1,800 cases were approved but that didn't include in-clude all of the others that didn't gain approval, Brent Ellis, unit supervisor, says of last year's activity. AND WHILE the program doesn't mean paying the entire utility bills it provides up to several hundred dollars in assistance with more than 300 applications received in the first two weeks after the program prog-ram started Nov. 1. Applications Applica-tions will be accepted through April 30. Mr. PoVey emphasizes those interested should contact con-tact his office at 544-1293 or 292-5292 as soon as possible. Those applications received shortly should mean processing proces-sing and payment made by next month. THOSE ELIGIBLE could work out a "deferred payment schedule" in conjunction with the electric and fuel companies who also flag problem accounts and can work out alernate payment schedules. Whatever amount is approved is sent directly to the appropriate utility company, Mr. Ellis explained, with funding fund-ing provided through the federal feder-al Low-Income Energy Assistance Assist-ance Act of 1981. LITERATURE outlining the program emphasizes it's "not a welfare program." Those wishing to apply must do so at the Layton Assistance Payments office, 312 W. Gentile. Gen-tile. 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday- Friday. Applicants should bring identification, Social Security numbers of all family members 1 8 and over; a copy of the most recent fuel bill from each utilit-y; utilit-y; income verification and proof of medical hills over five percent of their income if a medical deduction is desired. THE SAME payment is available regardless of when someone applies with benefit amount dependent on the type of fuel used, with more available avail-able for electricity. Household size and income are also figured. fi-gured. In addition, a small amount of emergency help is possible for fuel supply shortages, severe se-vere wealher conditions or repair re-pair emergencies, such as minor furnace repairs or broken window replacement. |