O.C. May Feel U.S. Budget Pinch

Officials at local agencies that rely on federal funds to feed the elderly poor and provide services to others are keeping a wary eye on Washington and the budget impasse, which threatens to cut some county programs by the end of the month if the crisis is not resolved.

President Clinton said Wednesday that the government shutdown threatens funding for a long list of programs, including Meals on Wheels for senior citizens, Head Start and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Most Meals on Wheels programs in Orange County are funded from a variety of sources, including the private sector, and are not immediately jeopardized by the budget showdown between Republican leaders and the White House.

However, officials at Feedback Foundation and South County Meals on Wheels, two key offices that rely heavily on federal funding to feed more than 2,700 seniors daily throughout Orange County, are keeping a nervous watch on Washington, hoping that both sides can agree on a budget before the end of the month. Otherwise, the meals will be eliminated, they said.

Shirley Cohen, executive director of the federally funded Feedback Foundation, which provides meals for 2,250 seniors at 22 centers throughout the county each day, said the stalled budget talks “are making us very nervous.”

About 750 of the people served by the group, which has operated in the county since 1973, are homebound and get three hot meals daily. The others are served only lunch.

“Our funding ended in December. Right now we are operating on a line of credit from a bank, a loan from the United Way and what little savings we have,” Cohen said. “If something isn’t done before Jan. 31, we’ll be forced to shut down.”

Cohen and others blamed the crisis on the Republican majority in Congress.

“We feel so hopeless because this is a problem not of our making. The Republicans are being pigheaded and unwilling to compromise. We don’t want the president to concede on this one, because if he does the Republicans will then go after Medicare and Medi-Cal.”

Chris Olson, director of the South County Meals on Wheels program, said the group will be forced to stop feeding 500 seniors daily if the politicians do not agree on a budget by the end of the month.

“Unless the federal funds start flowing south again, about the only thing I can send out after Jan. 31 is hope,” Olson said.

Ana Jacquette, deputy executive director of Head Start of Orange County, said the school program is not immediately threatened because the curriculum is funded from July to June and is currently operating on money already allocated. Head Start serves 3,523 underprivileged preschool children at 42 centers throughout the county.

A spokesman for the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said the agency’s flu tracking efforts have been hampered by the federal budget standoff.

Despite the government’s shutdown and a flu outbreak in the Midwest that was keeping the CDC busy, the current flu season in Orange County was being carefully monitored but was under control, said Dr. Hildy Meyers, an epidemiologist for Orange County.

Meyers said public health officials in Orange County generally do not need to call the CDC unless there is a massive influenza outbreak. “And, we are not having [a massive outbreak] now,” she said.

Meanwhile, work at Orange County’s two Superfund sites is continuing during the federal shutdown, according to a spokesman for the Environmental Protection Agency.

Work is continuing at Westminster’s Ralph Gray trucking site, where tons of toxic petroleum waste are being extracted from backyards of nearly an entire block. Several families are living in area hotels at government expense while awaiting the project’s completion.

And at Fullerton’s McColl Superfund Site, crews hired by a group of oil companies are continuing the capping of hazardous areas, despite the temporary absence of federal observers furloughed by the government.

The oil companies have been ordered to pay for the cleanup, expected to be completed within three years at a cost of about $30 million.

Times staff writers David Haldane and David Reyes contributed to this report.