Senior volunteer program forced to cut gas money

The more than 500 volunteers in the county’s Retired Senior Volunteer Program now are footing their own gas bills.

RSVP had to cut mileage reimbursements for volunteers after losing Kansas Department of Transportation annual funding of just more than $11,000.

Chad Frey, director of RSVP, said the funding ended June 30, which is the end of the state’s fiscal year.

Final mileage numbers were turned into the state Monday for reimbursement, but miles driven by volunteers after June 30 cannot be reimbursed.

The program had been paying volunteers 40 cents per mile, with a cap of $100 per month, Frey said.

The program has about 545 volunteers who put in time at 92 volunteer sites around the county. In the previous quarter, the program paid out about $5,500 in mileage.

Volunteers logged about 17,000 miles in that three-month span, but Frey said not all volunteers requested reimbursement, and many reach the cap.

Without the cap, the program would have paid about $6,800 in mileage for the quarter.

“Mileage is a weird thing,” Frey said. Many volunteers are on a fixed income, and for those people, the mileage reimbursement can be vital. For someone who has an income of maybe $600 a month will rely on getting back some of the money spent on gas, he said.

And volunteers can log quite a few hours, especially those who may be picking someone up and taking them to a doctor’s appointment in another town, or those who live in one town but volunteer in another. But there are others who may drive 500 miles in a month but not turn in any for reimbursement because they don’t need it or think they don’t deserve it, he said.

But for those who need the reimbursement in order to be able to afford to volunteer, Frey said his goal is to try to find a way to remove that barrier. He said if there is an instance where, for example, a person is handicapped, the program will make sure the person is able to get in and out of their volunteer site OK.

“We need to do everything to make sure there’s not a financial barrier for them as well,” he said.

Frey said he expects to see a drop in volunteer hours, and if and when gas prices go back up, some volunteers may not be able to volunteer.

And the work of the volunteers has an impact on the county, Frey said. In 2008, volunteers logged 91,671 hours. If paid at the federal minimum wage at the time, that would amount to $600,451 for that labor, so he said the money spent on mileage is just a small expenditure compared to the return. And he said volunteers touch “people from all walks of life and of all ages.” There are volunteers at places like Book ReViews, Meals on Wheels, and Newton Medical Center, but there also are volunteers out on senior patrol and serving as child advocates with CASA.

Frey said he is looking at other possible funding sources for the reimbursement. He said current United Way funding helps cover mileage for the Store-to-Door program, which delivers groceries to those who are unable to make it to the store, but those funds cannot be diverted to cover other volunteer mileage, he said.

When applying this year, he plans to ask for general funding from United Way instead of program-specific funding. But Frey said there are many needs in the county, and he doesn’t expect to be able to receive full funding from that one source.

He also is looking into applying for mileage funds through the Corporation for National and Community Service federal grant, but there are no local-level matching funds in place. And with federal funds, there’s the possibility of more stringent reporting mechanisms.

Another issue is whether to lower the rate of reimbursement, looking at the possibility of instituting the federal rate for volunteers at 14 cents a mile to help the dollars stretch further.

For now, Frey said he is asking around and looking for ways to piece together funding.

“Only time will tell,” he said. “What we’re looking for is a pretty sizable chunk of change.”