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The director of the District 11 Regional Area Agency on Aging shared information on the way the state allocates funds for senior programs and a recent legislative audit of the state Council on Aging with about 55 seniors Tuesday at Loudy-Simpson Park.

The seniors represented five counties in the district -- Moffat, Routt, Rio Blanco, Mesa and Garfield.

David Norman, director for District 11, said seniors can expect to see the state promoting the Medicaid prescription program because of the federal money it can receive.

"It is estimated the state would gain close to $5 million in federal monies," he said, "and we need it."

Seniors and directors were extremely upset about the recent legislative council report on the Colorado Council on Aging. The report, by design, only reported on the negative, and only 12 agencies out 170 were assessed. The report recommended more case workers to keep track of senior programs at a estimated cost of $9 million and for the funding be funneled through the Department of Social Services.

"That is crazy," Dick Smith of Battlement Mesa said. "It's another example of how the government is trying to micromanage."

Most of the programs associated with the Council on Aging have to do with travel associated with wellness checkups, shopping, nutrition and quality of life. Some of the flaws in the review were associated with guests receiving meals through senior programs.

Norman said many of problems were with guests not being documented properly and would be corrected.

"If a guest at a meal site had not signed in correctly, they were called a 'non-qualified recipient' and later labeled as an implied fraud situation," Norman said. In reality most were simply younger spouses.

Debera Stewart, director for Garfield County's senior citizens program, said the review was reported negatively and was not good for the programs.

"We get the majority of our funding from private foundations and donors, so when they read something that implies seniors are being ripped off they are hesitant to support the projects," Stewart said. "It makes our job difficult."

Norman encouraged all the counties in District 11 to apply for grants by the Aug. 18 deadline and to apply for everything the think they might need.

"Take into consideration the rise in costs for gas and milk lately. It's worth looking at," he said.

Norman is responsible for distributing funds issued by the state based on requests for each area of the district. A subcommittee on grants choose projects they feel meet the funding criteria and give those to Norman.

According to District 11 chairwoman Helen Moore, all the counties except Moffat receive state funding for senior meals.

"There are guideline and lots of rules and Moffat County just never felt they needed to mess with it," Moore said. "Other counties are dependent on these funds."