Vatterott offers relief for the summer heat
The Suburban Journals of North County 07/09/2008
By Brian Flinchpaugh
The summer heat has been relatively benign so far this year, but area officials and advocates want to have more air conditioners and money for utility payments ready for when the temperatures soar.
Officials from St. Louis city and county, along with Vatterott College and Cool Down St. Louis representatives, announced an initiative last week to provide more air conditioners to the area’s most vulnerable residents: seniors, infants and the disabled.
The S.O.S. (Saving Our Seniors) partnership was announced at a news conference Friday morning at the NorthPark Vatterott campus in Berkeley. Organizers of the initiative are seeking donations of new or used air conditioners that are working and less than two years old.
Pamela Bell, president and chief executive officer of Vatterott College, said the college’s campuses in Berkeley, Sunset Hills and St. Charles County will serve as drop-off locations for air-conditioners beginning July 14.
The used units will be examined and repaired by the college’s HVAC instructors, and they will be made available through Cool Down St. Louis, a regional energy assistance and education charity.
Bell said Vatterott is also is donating $5,000 to Cool Down St. Louis to purchase some new air conditioners and provide funding for energy assistance grants. The grants pay electric bills for seniors, the disabled and needy households with infants to avoid disconnections.
Vatterott also agreed to train Cool Down personnel how to handle used air conditioners and make minor repairs.
“These two months are the most challenging in terms of making sure the most vulnerable are safe and cool,” Bell said.
Officials anticipate temperatures will rise. But cooler summertime temperatures have prompted a lull in donations of all kinds.
“We want to be ahead of the game — we may have a hot August,” said the Rev. Earl Nance, representing the city of St. Louis.
Nance and Dr. James Knight, vice chairman of Cool Down St. Louis, said some residents are turning off their air conditioners because of high electric bills. Officials are worried that trend may continue due to the downturn in the economy.
Knight said seniors in particular often don’t open their windows if they don’t have an air conditioner because they feel vulnerable to crime.
Many heat-related fatalities occur in homes that have an air conditioner that isn’t being used or where the windows are closed, Knight said.
St. Louis County Executive Charlie Dooley stressed that the need for cooling assistance is regionwide. The county has made strides in educating people about heat emergencies, “but we still need to get the word out,” Dooley said.
Knight and other Cool Down St. Louis officials said seniors and others with air conditioners should keep them on. They said they are working with AmerenUE to limit disconnections. AmerenUE will limit disconnections if customers make payment arrangements on their summer electric bills, or if the customers qualify for and receive a Cool Down grant.
But officials concede that being ahead of the game may not be enough to meet the need.
Cool Down receives hundreds of calls a day from St. Louis city and county, St. Charles County and Illinois. Officials said as many as 40,000 to 50,000 residents in the St. Louis region will need some type of cooling assistance during the summer. About 20,000 of them are seniors, the disabled or infants.
The three Vatterott College drop-off sites are: NorthPark, 8530 Evans Ave. in Berkeley, 314-264-1000; Sunset Hills, 12970 Maurer Industrial Drive, 314-843-4200; and O’Fallon, 927 E. Terra Lane in St. Charles County, 636-978-7488. Donations will be accepted from 7:30 a.m. to 9:30 p.m. through Aug. 31.
More information is available at http://cooldownstlouis.org. For more information about obtaining an air conditioner, call the Cool Down St. Louis Resource Hotline at 314-241-7668.
###
|
