LEBANON — The elderly population is expanding even faster than the general population in Warren County, and the imbalance is expected to get larger as the Baby Boomers age.

        That reality is behind the county's first tax proposal to provide elderly services. Voters will decide Tuesday on the new tax, which would help residents 60 and older remain independent longer.

        The 0.96-mill levy would cost the owner of a $100,000 home $29 a year.

        It would raise $3.7 million a year for five years to help the elderly with bathing, medical transportation and other chores and bring them hot meals. Clients who can afford to pay for services are charged on a sliding scale.

        June Sculley, 86, of Mason has been waiting almost two years for help getting to the grocery store and doing housekeeping.

        “It's just a little bit too hard for me to do,” she said. “I just hope and pray that this levy goes through.”

        Her daughter and son-in-law live in Sharonville and help when they can, Mrs. Sculley said, but they both work. “They have a life. I just can't impose that way,” she said.

        The nonprofit Warren County Community Services has long provided in-home help to seniors. But despite large increases in county commissioners' funding — to about $950,000 this year — the number of elderly on the waiting list is approaching 400, Community Services Director Larry Sargeant said Wednesday.

        That's more than the 325 or so who are receiving help with chores, he said. A greater number — 550 — get meals delivered because that's less expensive for the agency and a good way to check in on the elderly regularly, Mr. Sargeant said.

        Almost 15,000 Warren County residents — 9.4 percent of the population — are 65 or older, according to the 2000 U.S. Census. That is a 44 percent increase since 1990, according to the census, whereas the county's general population grew 39 percent.

        Warren is the only county in the area without an elderly services levy.

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