Task force to help older people find jobs

Action Long Island's goals in the new year include helping some of the Island's older people find work. The Melville-based business group plans to form a Senior Citizens Task Force, according to ALI's chairman, Sheldon Sackstein.

"No other business group is doing this right now," said Sackstein. ALI has task forces that deal with such issues as health and helping young people find affordable housing on the Island. After meeting with members of some of those task forces, Sackstein said, it was evident that no one was dealing with older people and jobs.

At one such meeting, Wilbur Klatsky, 78, mayor of the village of Shoreham and a former chief executive of the Community Development Corp. of Long Island, stood and volunteered to help form a task force for people 50 and older.

"It's one area of the population we have ignored," Klatsky said. Seniors, many of whom have been forced to take early retirement, are ripe to work as consultants for businesses or nonprofit organizations, Klatsky said.

"Many of these seniors had rather extensive experience and there's no reason to ignore them now," said Klatsky, who believes the seniors should get paid for their work. "There has to be some kind of financial incentive."