Town service helps those ages 60 and over with minor home repairs

Shelter Island residents 60 or over are eligible for simple home repairs without labor charges thanks to Shelter Island Town and the Suffolk County Office for the Aging.

Three Island men can take on many of those small jobs you need done at no cost, except for materials.

Tom Hashagen,  Don Dunning and Andrew Chapman are ready to handle minor home repairs that don’t require the skills of a licensed crafts person.

They’re on the job because “the Island has always taken good care of its seniors,” Mr. Hashagen said.

It may be as simple as changing a light bulb that you can’t climb to reach or installing a smoke and carbon dioxide detector in your house. Maybe you need grab bars or safety rails in your bathroom.

The Town also has a collection of ramps, walkers and canes Islanders can borrow, and these men cannot only see that you receive them, but install the ramps for up to 90 days.

One family purchased a ramp for an elderly relative in Silver Beach and the men installed it. When the woman using the ramp moved off-Island, the family sold the ramp to another family and the men picked it up, moved it and installed it at the second house.

“It’s rewarding,” Mr. Hashagen said. One woman who got a needed railing said she wouldn’t be here today were it not for the installation of that railing.

Just this month, a patient needed a hospital bed and the men were able to move one into the patient’s house and set it up.

“Some of these things are urgent,” Mr. Hashagen said. The bed was one of those. The men do ask for patience so they can attend to urgent needs first.

Maybe it’s an air conditioner that needed installation in late spring or early summer. Or now, with the summer coming to an end soon, there may be outdoor furniture that needs to be moved inside for storage.

“It’s fun,” Mr. Hashagen said about working with the other two men. A lot of the jobs he does are things he has long done on his own house through the years.

If you need help with any of the following, call Town Hall and speak with either Barbara Bloom or Judy Meringer at 631 749 0291.

Through the home repair service, help is available for the following:

Plumbing

• Replacement of washers in sinks, washbasins and tubs

• Clearing toilet and sink clogs with plungers

• Cleaning aerators on the end of faucets and replacing aerator screens if old or damaged

• Repairing hoses on washing machines

• Installing new ball cocks and flappers in toilets

• Cleaning accessible dryer vents

Electrical

• Checking breakers only, but not replacing them

• Changing light bulbs

• Hose connections on appliances, but not more extensive repairs

• Troubleshooting television modems, answering machines and landlines to determine sources of problems

• Installing and removing window air conditioners

• Installing smoke/CO2 alarms and changing batteries in them

• Replacing switches

Carpentry

• Installing grab bars or safety rails for tubs and toilets

• Minor repairs to floors, e.g., trimming a rough edge off linoleum, tacking down the edge of a rug

• Replacing treads on deck steps

• Repairing or reinforcing handrails on stairs

• Installing shades or curtain rods

• Replacing broken windowpanes

• Rearranging furniture as needed for safe access in the home

• Installing and maintaining screens and storm windows (Screens are removed and taken to an outside vendor for repair, then picked up and installed with the client paying the repair bill for the screens)

• Installing weather stripping around doors or shrink wrap kits on windows

• Minor patching of walls and ceilings, but not replacing floor areas

• Installing shelving

• Checking basement stairs for safety

• Adding handrails

Outdoors

• Installing a Town ramp from the Handicapped Ramp Loan Program. This requires an application and loan agreement to be filled out and signed with a loaned ramp available for 90 days at a time based on availability 

• Tightening or replacement of window sash locks

• Tightening or replacement of doorknobs

• Moving patio furniture in or out of storage

• Hooking up or disconnecting outside hoses