Volunteers will be given instructions on preparing federal and state income tax returns. Volunteers must be committed to this tax assistance work for four hours per day, once every Thursday, starting Jan. 26.

For more information, call the Naugatuck Senior Center at (203) 720-7069.

NAUGATUCK — The tri-fold letter curls up on Ed Carter’s desk, as if mimicking the felines about which it is written. Carter, Naugatuck’s mayoral aide, receives many requests for borough assistance—his phone has rung almost continuously since the April 15 apartment fire on Cherry Street—but the one before him now is enrapturing.

“This one, it struck me,” Carter says. “When I first got it, I’m like, ‘What is this nuts?’ Then I started thinking, ‘Boy, this is what it’s meant for, the person who lives alone.’”

The author, the person who lives alone, is a woman in her mid-70s. Her companions are two cats.

Carter handles many requests for help but was struck by a woman's plea for money to pay for her cats' shots.

“They’re my light,” she writes. “I don’t have any family. I talk to them—I’m not nuts—but I talk to them, and I swear they understand me. But it’s time for their shots, and I didn’t get an increase in social security.

“I am not lonely or get depressed. I talk to them, and I think they understand me. I don’t know if you’ll allow money for this but if you can.”

It’s clear Carter has been pondering this plea for a while; he says he’ll consult Mayor Bob Mezzo and Controller Wayne McAllister before making a decision.

Carter is charged with distributing $7,600, which Naugatuck received recently from the Connecticut Community Foundation, as part of the new Elderly Concerned Assistance Program. It’s a rare, non-earmarked pool of money that allows local officials tremendous discretion about its use. The only rules are recipients must live in Naugatuck and must be at least 65 years old.

“They really didn’t give me [guidelines],” Carter says. “They said it’s to help. I said, ‘I can help with yardwork? I can help with medicine?’ ‘Yeah, if you have an elderly person that’s in need of something, this is meant to just make life a little bit simpler.’”

The money came from the 2007 sale of East Hill Woods, a non-profit retirement community in Southbury, to the for-profit Watermark at East Hill. With the $9.2 million it earned from that transaction, East Hill Woods established last November a fund at the Connecticut Community Foundation. According to CCF Assistant CEO Carol O’Donnell, the fund—the foundation’s largest—will generate about $300,000 worth of grants every year.

The purposes of those grants, however, remain undetermined. Neither CCF nor the East Hill Woods Advisory Committee wants the fund to merely replicate an existing program.

“We have already undertaken quite a bit of research,” O’Donnell says. “We are in the process of conducting stakeholder interviews with providers of senior services in our area to understand what the needs are, what is already being done, what the resources are.”

She adds CCF plans to hold a series of focus groups, throughout May and June, with residents, senior service providers and community leaders of the foundation’s 21-town region to help establish grant priorities for the future.

In the meantime, East Hill Woods and the Connecticut Community Foundation authorized the temporary, open-ended Elderly Concerned Assistance Program.

“The East Hill Woods Advisory Committee, while they were going through this process, felt it was important to get funding out into the community to assist needy seniors [right away],” O’Donnell says. “So they awarded $100,000 across our 21 towns.”

Each municipality received money, according to its population, percentage of senior citizens participating in food stamps or Supplemental Nutrition Assistance programs, and percentage of senior citizens older than 80, since that population tends to be the neediest, O’Donnell says.

So with Naugatuck’s $7,600 share to dispense by Sept. 15, Carter solicited the help of the senior center’s gregarious director, Harvey Leon Frydman.

“We’ve helped a lot of people the last few weeks,” Frydman says. “I’ve been going to different groups in town for seniors saying, ‘This is available. We can help you buy a pair of eyeglasses, help you with a dripping faucet, if you need some plumbing in your house.’”

ECAP paid for a man’s first eye examination in 17 years, new lenses for one of Carter’s childhood neighbors, a portion of the cost to remove a tree looming over a woman’s house. Seniors submit applications to Carter and, in general, front the money for a service then receive full or partial reimbursement. But the program’s flexibility has allowed Carter to provide money right away, when appropriate.

“Some of the people that are calling, they don’t have any money to prepay,” he explains. “So what I’ll do is I’ll say to somebody, ‘Why don’t you contact the plumber, get an idea of what it’s gonna cost?’ We generally average anywhere from $250-300, helping out each person.”

At that rate, ECAP could benefit about 30 people.

Carter can’t approve every request, of course—some, for instance, he’s passed along to the Elks’ Senior Home Work Project or another service organization—which is why these cats and their shots are such a conundrum.

“You know what,” he says, “to that woman, she’s probably thinking of that every day: ‘I’ve got to get shots for my two cats, who are 10 and 11 years old, and they mean that much to me.’ And is she giving up something else to pay for it?”

The more Carter considers, the more he leans toward cutting a check.

“I don’t know whether this is something we could do, for shots or something, but you know, in essence, this means a lot to this woman,” he reasons. “And it may be what actually is keeping her going. It could be the medicine she needs. Not everything, I guess, is a pill.”

For more information about the Elderly Concerned Assistance Program, call Mayoral Aide Ed Carter at 720-7208.

The Western Connecticut Area Agency on Aging (WCAAA) and the state Department of Social Services sponsored a free, walk-in health clinic, which boasted booths where seniors could get their feet, teeth, and eyes examined, their kidney health evaluated, and their diabetic risks analyzed.

Dr. Brian N. Perelmuter examined seniors' oral health last Thursday.

Medical professionals filled two rooms of the center and assessed various aspects of seniors’ health as others enjoyed a special healthy lunch in the dining room.

Senior Center Director Harvey Leon Frydman said the WCAAA organized a free health clinic for the first time last year. And although seniors enjoy an occasional health fair, where vendors solicit their patronage, it’s a somewhat rare privilege to get a free, one-on-one, bona fide health evaluation.

“We’re flattered that the agency and the state chose the Naugatuck Senior Center,” Frydman said. “I think it’s very nice that [seniors] are able to go to each different station.”

He added that health services for those who most need them are especially valuable in a tough economic time.

“We did this because of the economy. People aren’t always going to the doctor; they’re spending that money on heat, on rent or on food,” he said. “This helps in some way to make sure people stay healthy.”

Marion L. Pollack, a registered nurse and a care management coordinator with the WCAAA, said the services offered were preventative in nature.

But in an election season, there’s a fine line between what Chatfield’s made a habit over his 32-year tenure as chief executive and what could be considered politicking or campaigning.

When one walks through the double doors into the main lobby of the center, one encounters a set of signs making very clear the center’s policy on political activism. “We aim for a stress-free environment,” they read, “No soliciting, no campaigning, no politics.”

And the general consensus at the senior center is that Chatfield’s occasional visits are apolitical. Seniors don’t feel pressured or put upon—on the contrary, they feel he’s just being friendly.

“He comes for the parties. He never talks politics,” said Lorraine Chapman-Roy, a lifelong Prospect resident. “He knows almost everybody; he knows if someone’s lost somebody … he’s a big help.”

“He’s friends with everybody,” said Minnie Wolvek, another regular at the center. “[His visits] have nothing to do with politics.”

Lucy Smegielski, the center’s director, said that Chatfield “doesn’t abuse” the rules or her strict prohibition of electioneering.

But Smegielski recently turned away another candidate for the mayor’s seat, Democratic challenger Charles Mallon, who tried to visit the center.

“I just wanted to introduce myself,” Mallon said of the visit.

But he didn’t get that chance. When Mallon refused to leave after Smegielski’s request, she called the police, and Mallon spoke with an officer outside. The officer told Mallon that Smegielski, as the director of the facility, had a right to exclude him.

But Mallon said he spoke to two lawyers who told him his First Amendment rights were infringed upon when he was ejected from the public building. He dismissed their suggestions that he pursue legal recourse, saying he “didn’t want to make a scene and embarrass the town.”

Smegielski said Mallon’s visit was intended to solicit votes and thus was disallowable.

“This is supposed to be a stress-free environment,” she said. “I’m not treating him any different than anyone else … I don’t need people coming in and disrupting things.

“This is supposed to be a place where we don’t fight over politics … it’s bad enough we fight over the Yankees and Red Sox … [the seniors] don’t have to put up with that bulls—.”

But Mallon feels that he was well within his rights when he tried to visit the municipally-owned and operated building, and that as another public official (an incumbent Town Council member), he’s due the same privileges enjoyed by Chatfield.

He thinks his debarment from the center “hurt him” in terms of his loss in Tuesday’s landslide election, when Chatfield won almost 80 percent of the vote. He indicated that seniors represent “one of the largest voting blocks in town”— and one of the hardest to reach.

“Unless seniors hear from me and know who I am, they’re scared,” Mallon said. “Scared their taxes will go up” or that his administration won’t support the center the way Chatfield has for so many years.

“Seniors have questions. There are issues. That [exclusionary policy] needs to stop,” he said.

Furthermore, Mallon contends that when Chatfield visits, “it’s all politics,” whether intended as such or not.

“I felt that by just going up and talking to Joe or Mary or Fred and asking how they’re doing, how’s that leg, that’s as political as it gets … when you go in and ask, ‘How’s that new bus we bought [for the center]?’—you tell me [whether that’s political].”

Mallon harbors no grudge against Chatfield—“I have the utmost respect for Mayor Bob. The man’s done good,” he said—but does feel that Smegielski applied a double standard by allowing Chatfield into the center but excluding him at the door.

“That’s a public building. You should be allowed to go in and talk to people,” he said. “I guess the senior center is off-limits—to some people.”

600 signatures later, Green’s efforts paid off when the petition managed to catch the eye of Congresswoman Rosa. L. DeLauro, third-district Democratic representative for Connecticut.

DeLauro spoke to Social Security concerns and on other national matters at the Naugatuck Senior Center on Friday, and dozens, including Mayor Bob Mezzo and Second Deputy Mayor Tamath Rossi, turned out to pick her brain on the issues.

DeLauro thanked seniors for their willingness to “exercise democracy” and their success on “making a difference.”

“I hear you,” she said emphatically. “You’re not doing this in a vacuum where no one is listening.”

Seniors’ concerns about Social Security ranged from fears that the system would fail entirely and not exist for future generations to complaints that the agency doesn’t pay out enough to anxiety over the arduous process of applying for benefits.

“Medicare … is about providing people dignity and respect … it makes me sad to know this is being lost,” DeLauro said.

She quoted her 95-year-old mother, who said, “These are supposed to be the golden years, but they feel like the lead years.”

One recently-retired woman in her mid-60s, who did not want to be named for privacy reasons, said she injured a lumbar disc several years before retirement and could not work—but she had to apply three times over a four to five years for disability benefits, and eventually had to hire a lawyer.

“I don’t think it’s fair,” she said of the system. “The [Social Security Administration] leaves us up the creek without a paddle” when we don’t get an increase in benefits, she said, as the cost of living indexes always seem to nip at the heels of inflation.

The retiree now lives on about $890 a month in benefits, adding up to $10,680 a year.

The 2009 poverty threshold for a single person is $10,830 a year.

A bill proposed on Apr. 19, 2007 called the Consumer Price Index for Elderly Consumers Act (H.R. 1953) would compute a separate monthly consumer price index (CPI) for seniors that would then be used to calculate specific cost-of-living and adjust Social Security and Medicare benefits accordingly. The bill has seen no action since July 9, 2007, when it was referred to the Subcommittee on Healthy Families and Communities, but DeLauro said she’d dedicate “100 percent of [her] time-effort over the next several months” to a cost of living adjustment.

In addition, the 2010 fiscal year saw a ten percent increase from the 2009 fiscal year in federal funding to the Social Security Administration. The $11.4 billion allotment allowed the hiring of some 1,600 new SSA employees, which would in theory increase productivity and speed up turnaround—“so [the SSA] can better handle claims,” DeLauro said.

DeLauro voiced her support for the health care reform plans propagated mostly by President Barack Obama and Democrats in Congress, saying that the strategies proposed would “strengthen Medicare” and eliminate co-pays on preventative care.

She said good health care reform should “shift power from pharmaceutical and insurance companies and put it back in the hands of the people.

But once DeLauro mentioned big business, the seniors in attendance shifted gears.

Many complained about the lack of accountability in the Senate Banking Committee, government bailouts enjoyed by companies like AIG over the last year, and outsourcing.

DeLauro assured everyone present that she “spends a lot of time trying to curb executive pay and outrageous bonuses,” especially in companies that received federal money.

Referring to the $165 million in bonuses the company announced in March, she said, “What we’ve seen at AIG and some of these places is disgusting … most of those executives didn’t lose a dime.”

One senior countered with the pointed question, “Did [Connecticut Senator] Chris Dodd lose a dime?”

Dodd reportedly collected $160,000 in donations from employees of the AIG Financial Products Division in Wilton. Conn. in 2006 and 2007 after AIG executive Joseph Cassano advised them to donate to Dodd, as he was “next in line” to chair the Senate Banking Committee. Dodd also had a hand in inserting the loophole into stimulus legislation which allowed for the AIG bonuses.

DeLauro chalked up problems in big business to deregulation in the Bush, Jr. era, which “brought us to our financial knees … when you allow self-regulation, you do so at great peril.”

“But you just can’t blame everything on the last guy,” one senior said angrily.

DeLauro tried to spread responsibility over many administrations and across parties, saying the problem was “years in the making.”

Speaking to concerns over outsourcing, DeLauro said she is working to “close loopholes in the tax code that allow companies to go offshore and take their jobs with them,” adding that outsourcing is a problem for Social Security and Medicare as well, as U.S. contractors working offshore or overseas avoid payroll taxes—thus avoiding payments into Social Security and Medicare accounts.

Naugatuck Mayor Bob Mezzo said DeLauro was addressing “important issues,” saying “behind that nice, humble demeanor is one of our most effective lawmakers.”

At the Senior Center, life went on as usual as DeLauro departed. Bingo cards were distributed, and seniors turned back to their respective card games and conversations.

“Fifteen for two,” Elaine Broderick counters, playing a five of hearts and moving a red peg two spaces ahead of the second on a wooden board.

“Twenty,” says Velma Sego, the organizer of this cribbage group at the Naugatuck Senior Center, as she plays another five, scoring two points for the pair she’s strung along with the last five.

I’m trying desperately to figure out what in the world is going on as numbers flash by and multi-colored pegs are ushered along a corresponding curving path, or “street.” Each street has 120 pegs, and the first one to make it to the mother peg, number 121, wins.

Players score by playing the running sum to 15 or maxing out at 31 or closest thereto, or by forming runs, flushes, pairs, or sums of 15 from their hands at the end of the round—an admittedly simple explanation for a highly intricate game.

DiVito, Broderick, Sego, and Doug Cowles sit around a table in the senior center, happily passing the time with this traditional card game. In the room directly adjacent, a pianist plays upbeat ragtime bits and seniors learn about “reflexology” and get massages.

Harvey Leon Frydman, the center’s director, said Sego’s cribbage club has as many as eight participants some weeks.

“We like to encourage our seniors to share their talents,” he said.

And Sego certainly knows the game. When a player miscounts and apologizes, Sego laughs and says “I miss ‘em too … and I’ve been playing for 60 years!”

Cowles said he’s also played since he was a child, when his parents taught him to count scores during the “show,” the last stage of each round wherein players try to score from their hands.

Broderick had a friend who, when learning as a child, would receive a smart slap on the wrists for miscounting.

I did some miscounting of my own when I was dealt in for a round and was summarily vanquished by a grinning Cowles, who made it to 121 before I could even reach 75.

“It’s all in the cards,” Sego assured me, implying that skill has little to do with it.

But it was clear that there’s plenty of strategy to the game, and it could take a lifetime to master it.

So we might take it as a lesson to respect our elders. Though we might be able to beat them in a footrace or in the latest video game, they could sure show us what it’s like when it comes to cribbage—and most other table games, at that.