Cabarrus County Community Advisory Boards for the Aging are undermanned

Concord, NC- According to the county clerk to the board of commissioners, Megan Smit, the commissioners discussed planning for an aging population among other topics at a retreat late last month. The commissioners use planning retreats to prepare for the coming year of municipal work. During the retreat the commissioners discussed revenues, funding for education, and in one of the longest presentations, the ever changing demographics of the region. 

 

According to a report prepared for the retreat's agenda, "Natural aging plus population growth equals rapid growth in elderly population." Census data from 2010 suggests that Cabarrus County is aging at a comparable rate to the rest of the nation, but the county's median age is three years higher than neighboring Mecklenburg County. When asked about the commissioner's plan to handle the dynamics of an aging population, Smit responded that the commissioners were considering the data while working on the new budget that will be finalized sometime this summer. 

Although the county provides a number of services for aging residents, numerous programs have experienced delays processing new applications. 

The message callers hear at the county's Adult Services line (704-920-1400) mentions longer than normal delays in obtaining nutrition and Medicaid support, benefits that many aging residents depend on. According to Charlotte's NPR member station, WFAE, the county is taking up to ninety days to respond to applications for assistance, the state mandates action within thirty.

The county, via the board of commissioners, is responsible for appointing citizens to the Nursing Home Care Community Advisory Committee and the Adult Care Home Community Advisory Committee. The state mandates that members of these trained, volunteer-based committees act as advocates and liaisons between patients and facilities. Although the Nursing Home Care Community Advisory Committee has no regulatory power, members visit care facilities, help file complaints and turn in regional reports regarding the well-being of residents to the commissioners, and to the Department of Health and Human Services, . 

Community advisory committees offer a voice to elderly residents, but both aforementioned committees have suffered from long time vacancies. The county allows for eight appointed members on each committee, but the minutes from the board's meetings reveal between four and eight positions have been vacant every month since 2012.

The county clerk says the commissioners are actively working to fill these seats. The state allows the assistant secretary for aging (DHHS) to appoint members to these committees if a county's board of commissioners have left a seat vacant for three months or more.

The regional ombudsman, Laurie Abounader, said that she is always looking for volunteers to fill these vacant seats.Residents of the county who are interested in volunteering are encouraged to contact her.

Local oil painter, Paul Keysar on display

Concord, NC- As a young man Paul Keysar studied oil painting at the Pennsylvania School of Fine Arts in Philadelphia. There, at the oldest art school in America,  Keysar enjoyed a rigorous curriculum with an acute focus  on technique. In his third year the artist yearned for a new experience with the arts and went to study under Carolyn Egeli, a landscape and portrait artist in Southern Maryland, the area he grew up in. The beautiful landscape of the area, creeks emptying into the Potomac River in quiet rural settings, inspired the artist to combine his original love of the figure with paintings of the land around him.

The cost of living in Maryland, and family ties in North Carolina, brought Keysar to the Charlotte region where he maintains a work space at Concord's Clearwater Artist Studios. A young man with a young family, the artist is concerned that, "The arts are the first to go and the last to return when the economy goes down." But he contends that, "People's lives are enriched by the arts," and he works every day he can to promote them. 

Keysar's work has paid off, he has made some lovely contributions to the local art community. In January of this year the painting of his son, Jacob, appeared on the cover of Carolina Arts. The artist's work is currently displayed at the Cabarrus Arts Council in the exhibit, Human Nature. In July of this year the artist will be premiering his show of regional oil paintings at the UNCC, Student Union Art Gallery, in an exhibit entitled: While the City Sleeps.

The artist's most recent work from the "Night" series is of a Christmas tree-lot in the area. The scene depicts an utterly Southern motif, an RV parked in front of a snow-free lot, offering Christmas trees for sale. Lit only by the artificial light of a streetlamp, the painting encourages the viewer to place himself at the artist's vantage point. "The light, moonlight and artificial, shines in the darkness to reveal what is hidden. It brings the viewer into the scene, calms the fear, gives warmth to the coldness." The artist recalls roaming his friend's farms in childhood, relaxing in the cool evenings by running streams and the, "Feeling of uncertainty the night brings and the way man adds light to settle the fears that can come with it."

The effect of artificial light and other human influence is often present in Keysar's work. The recent series of paintings, "Conquest" reveals man's relationship with the earth, "Man's hand is everywhere, his dominance is apparent." The influence for the "Conquest" series arose from a painting of the artist's friend in a field. The man holds a gun he has never fired in a work titled Green. Much of the work in the "Conquest" series requires the viewer to transmit his or herself into the artist's world, to perceive the land in its barely touched state. 

The artist offers classes locally and he wants aspiring artists to know, "If you want to be a better painter draw, draw, draw."