DEAR SUN SPOTS: Thank you for providing a service to so many people. Plus not everyone has a computer to find out information. I would like to know of dealers in the L-A area who are familiar with a radon reduction system. Also is the Sun Journal going to print the numbers for the Maine State Lottery game of Hot Lotto. Thank you. — No Name, No Town

ANSWER: There are several companies that deal with radon in the yellow pages of the phone book. Clyde Tarr, owner of Radon Done Right, 782-0313, 866-99-RADON, said he uses sub-slab depressurization and that it is the most effective and common way of ridding homes of radon. He has more information about the technique at his Web site, www.radondoneright.com.

Mike Gelberg, one of the owners of Air & Water Quality Inc., 782-0076, 800-698-9655, www.awqinc.com, said you can get radon from your water as well as from the soil. Radon, a gas, is a product of the decay of uranium. The gas is dissolved in the water, then, as the water is agitated, it is again released into the air.

Public water supplies are generally safe, Mike said, but well water should be tested. For testing, he recommends A&L Laboratories on Hotel Road in Auburn, 784-5354, which has the required certification. He doesn’t recommend buying a kit from a big box store.

As for Hot Lotto, thanks to reminders from you and other readers, it is now appearing on the obituary page with the other lottery numbers.

DEAR SUN SPOTS: I love your column and look forward to it daily. Two things: First, I also enjoy the “Looking Back” 100, 50 and 25 years ago column. On Tuesday, Oct. 20, the 50 years ago portion featured the local welfare budget in Lewiston for the month of September 1959 was $453.37. I would like to know how much the welfare amount was for the city of Lewiston for the month of September 2009 in comparison to 1959 or the latest month available. I believe the taxpayers have the right to know.

Second, a few weeks ago Maine came out with a new lottery called “Hot Lotto.” It is drawn twice weekly. Why aren’t these numbers printed in the Sun Journal as are the Megabucks Plus and Powerball? Thank you for the information. — J. V., Lewiston

ANSWER: According to Norm Beauparlant, director of budget and purchasing for the city of Lewiston, the most recent General Assistance budget for the city is $559,850. However, as he noted, the comparison is not apples to apples.

Welfare has changed a great deal in the past 50 years. For much of this country’s history, help for the poor was extremely limited. Cities and towns doled out help in small chunks to only the most needy, such as the sum you saw in “Looking Back.” Those who were unable to take care of themselves had to resort to going to, literally, the poorhouse, and there was great stigma attached to doing so.

There was some assistance from private, often religion-based, charities, but that was overwhelmed during the Great Depression. So, in 1935, President Franklin D. Roosevelt introduced Social Security and Aid for Dependent Children to try and ease some of the severe poverty under which seniors, widows and children were suffering.

But welfare as we know, and argue about, it really began during the Great Society movement in the 1960s, when, as Wikipedia.com notes, “for the first time a person who was not elderly or disabled could receive a living from the U.S. government.” Under President Bill Clinton in the 1990s, federal legislation reduced access to the welfare system (including AFDC), but aid is still much more substantial than it was in 1959.

As for Hot Lotto, see the response to the previous letter.

This column is for you, our readers. It is for your questions and comments. There are only two rules: You must write to the column and sign your name (we won’t use it if you ask us not to). Please include your phone number. Letters will not be returned or answered by mail, and telephone calls will not be accepted. Your letters will appear as quickly as space allows. Address them to Sun Spots, P.O. Box 4400, Lewiston, ME 04243-4400. Inquiries can also be e-mailed to [email protected].