A long time to wait

Having just read, “Come in from the cold” (Readers Write, Nov. 6), I felt compelled to address the issue. Rep. Everett O. Pederson stated that here in Maine we will not have to wait for federal funds before applying for and receiving heating assistance due to $8 million already available in state funds.

I found this amusing. On Oct. 30, my 85-year-old grandmother and I tried to apply for the Low-Income Home Energy Assistance Program at our local Community Action Program office. I am a full-time college student raising two children and she is solely dependent on Social Security. We were each given an appointment for Jan. 29, 1991, then told it would be an additional 30 days from that date before we would even find out if we would be eligible for the assistance.

To say we were disheartened would be an understatement. I am very disillusioned by programs such as this, that are designed to help those who are forced to help themselves. Three months to await an appointment, alone, is outlandish, but to not even receive a response until March about winter heating assistance is appalling. Perhaps our anxieties about the approaching winter and rising costs of fuel oil are indeed justified. Heidi D. Nelson Houlton