AUBURN — Warmer than usual winter weather this year has meant less call for Twin Cities energy assistance programs.

But Community Concepts officials said they worry a spike in cold weather could send people back to them more quickly than they could handle it.

“We are encouraging people to call in now,” said Jim Wilkins, director of corporate advancement for Community Concepts. “March is typically a heavy month for snowfall, and people don’t want to get caught short. When they flood us with calls all of a sudden, it slows us down and then it just takes us longer to process the calls.”

Community Concepts is the agency that manages the Low-Income Home Energy Assistance Program in Lewiston-Auburn and Oxford County. So far this winter, the agency has approved LIHEAP benefits averaging $805 per household for 8,656 residents. That’s down from more than 9,000 they had approved at this time in 2009, Wilkins said.

“We were busy early on,” Wilkins said. “In December, we had 120 calls per day, but it’s stopped. Normally, we have people calling us to make sure they are set. Now, we’re actually calling people who initially registered but just dropped off our radar in the past few months.”

LIHEAP is available for households that are at 200 percent of the poverty level — or 230 percent if the household contains someone older than 60 or a child younger than 2.

The agency begins taking applications for heating assistance in August for the coming winter. They will continue taking applications for this winter through April 30.

The agency also takes medical expenses and the size of the household into consideration. For those who qualify, Community Concepts works directly with the vendors, setting up an account to pay for winter heat.

“If they don’t use it now, it will still be there next fall when the weather starts to get cold again,” Wilkins said.

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