UPDATING ELIGIBILITY STANDARDS – Voice Of The Township

Well the summer season is in full swing now. School is out, Germanfest is over, and soon the fireworks will begin for the Fourth of July and the Three Rivers Festival. As we do every year, the Wayne Township Trustee Office started our summer event season by participating in the Waynedale Memorial Day Parade.

And what a great parade it was. The weather was sunny and it was early enough in the day that it was not too hot. I always enjoy participating in the Memorial Day Parade and greeting all the wonderful residents of Waynedale. This year I was privileged to ride in a glossy black Corvette with one of the members of Reflections N Glass, a local Corvette owners’ club. Those were some beautiful cars. To see them and all the rest of the parade you can catch the video on The Waynedale News Facebook page and see the entire parade again.

Besides outside community events we continue with our more routine duties in the office. A very important project we engage in every spring here at the Wayne Township office is updating our Eligibility Standards. Updating the Standards annually is required by Indiana law. Once we complete our update, we present the new Standards to our Board for approval, which we did at the May Board meeting. After approval, we are required to file the new Eligibility Standards with the County Commissioners.

In some instances, Indiana law tells township trustees exactly what and how to act on a particular case. Other parts of the statute allow trustees flexibility in determining their own standards. The law takes into account that townships are different, and what might work well in a populous urban township like Wayne might not be the best approach for a smaller rural township. The law also takes into account that circumstances like the economy can change, and the Standards may need to change along with the changing world.

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Making sure our Eligibility Standards are the best they can be is very important for our office and for our clients. Besides the Indiana law our standards are based on our mission statement and on past decisions handed down in Administrative Court cases when a client appeals one of our decisions. Our decisions regarding granting or denying Township Assistance applications are based on our Eligibility Standards, in conjunction with Indiana law. If a client appeals, the County Administrative Law Judge uses our Standards to decide the case.

Our mission statement at Wayne Township embodies the idea that we are here to help with temporary emergency assistance for township citizens who fall on hard times. We help those folks who qualify with financial assistance and with guidance on getting through a rough period in life. Our ultimate goal is to move clients from assistance to independence.

Independence is one of our common values as Americans. None of us like having to depend on others to make it through our lives. I think that is a big reason that the Fourth of July, or Independence Day, is one of our most honored holidays. In the Declaration of Independence, the document that enshrines this most American of values, the founding fathers made it clear that it was time to get out from under the yoke of what had become a foreign power, Great Britain. And after fighting our way through we gained our independence to become the Land of the Free. Let’s all celebrate that fact as the fireworks light up our skies this summer holiday season.