Pike commissioners to assist disabilities group

By TOM KANE

MILFORD, PA — Oscar Santizo wants to see a Center for Independent Living established in Pike County. Now, the closest one is in Scranton.

Santizo, who is the spokesman for Northeast Resources Unlimited, which serves handicapped people, also wants to get some of the transportation money PennDOT has been handing out to other groups.

“They don’t know we exist,” Santizo said. “There’s about $6 million that they did not use this year. We think we deserve to get some of it for transporting disabled Pike residents.”

The Pike County Commissioners agreed with him at its recent meeting on July 27 and will write letters of support that he will need to get funding from the state’s transportation system.

“A transportation grant that Northeast Resources Unlimited could possibly get from PennDOT would pay for another van or perhaps more that would be used for handicapped people to go to doctor’s appointments, for shopping and other essential things,” said Robin LoDolce, executive director of Pike County Agency on Aging.

Right now, LoDolce’s agency is working on the development of a more efficient schedule for vans that would avoid empty or nearly empty vans on return trips.

“We’re trying to make it possible to help more people with transportation resources, especially handicapped people,” she said.

Santizo’s group has recently found a temporary home in Lords Valley, PA.

“Right now, we have been given some space by the Century 21 Select Group in Lords Valley,” he said. “But we are looking to move into another space provided by Mark Hoover of the Human Resource Center, which is also group that serves the handicapped.”

He’s hoping eventually to have their own Center for Independent Living here in Pike, he said.

A center would assist the handicapped with sign language instruction, filling out job applications, getting food stamps and transportation services.

Santizo and his group applied recently to the Pennsylvania Office of Vocational Rehabilitation for a grant to build such a center but were turned down. “We going to try again but this time with the support of more organizations that serve the handicapped than we had last time,” he said.

“We’re not giving up,” Santizo said. “One of these years, they’ll say yes.”