Our oil delivery man is a truly nice guy, but when I hear his truck coming to feed our greedy tank, I think, “Oh no, not HIM again!” Dollar signs cloud my vision. What must recipients of fuel assistance feel since it ends tomorrow?

Even so, fuel assistance has been, Thelma Giberson told me, “a big help” this winter. I called Thelma, who staffs Rumford’s General Assistance office, after reading about Section 8 housing shortages in Lewiston/Auburn in the Sun Journal. Is it the same in the River Valley?

Yes.

As with the Twin Cities, River Valley Section 8 lists are “closed.” Community Concepts’ Karen Turner, who manages housing services for Oxford County, explained that the Maine State Housing Authority is not issuing additional vouchers to meet increased demand. A voucher becomes available only when an individual or family move on. The waiting period can and does run from two or three to five years.

“People try to get into shelters,” Karen said, “because then they move to the top of the list.”

Thelma said 18-year-olds who don’t want to live at home sometimes try to get assistance, especially housing. But “word gets around” and Thelma will contact their parents.

Thelma and I talked about the work “I really love,” as she put it. The number of people who seek her out – 97 to 129 per month – seemed high to me. But though Thelma provides information, technical assistance, you might say, to all comers, only 20 percent of them receive financial help. And that, in effect, is bridge money until Temporary Assistance for Needy Families funding is approved.

Struggling

Many families in need of assistance include two adults, both working for minimum wage. “There’s no way they can make it,” said Sue Byam, who runs the food pantry at the Green Church in Mexico with her husband, George, and 10 or 12 other volunteers.

There are other food pantries where families can get help. They include St. John/St. A’s and Praise Assembly of God in Rumford Center.

Sue Byam confirmed my suspicion that the number of people in need has increased. “One day in December we had 28 families in an hour and a half. Fuel prices have a lot to do with it,” she said.

Sour and sweet

I guess it’s just the way of the world: Some people cheat. Thelma, Rumford’s General Assistance director, recalled interviewing a man who had come for help and in the middle of the interview, his cell phone rang. “How does he pay for cell phone service?” she wondered.

The Green Church stopped taking cakes from Hannaford, she said, because “people would take the cake back to the store for double its price in cash.”

“I see a lot of abuse,” volunteer Karen Turner said. “And then you see the families that really do need help.”

But there is sweetness, too. Mary Thacker, whose husband is pastor of Praise Assembly, told me that now and then “…we’ll get a check from someone who just needed help for a while.”

Linda Farr Macgregor lives with her husband, Jim, in Rumford. She is a freelance writer and author of “Rumford Stories.” Contact her at [email protected].