FERRIDAY, La. – By 6 a.m. Thursday, about 200 people had lined up at the LaSalle Community Action Agency’s Community Development Center to apply for utility bill assistance. That was despite the fact that the office was not scheduled to open until 9 a.m. to take applications. So agency workers called police to help hand out &uot;tickets&uot; that early birds could use to come back during regular hours to apply.

But despite some complaints to the contrary, agency workers were not showing favoritism when they did so, said office Director Henderson Cook. Instead, they were simply trying to maintain order and keep people from standing in the cold for hours.

&uot;If we hadn’t handed out tickets, those people would have still been waiting at 9 a.m., so the people who arrived at 9 wouldn’t have been served any faster,&uot;&160;Cook said. &uot;The only effect was that (giving out tickets) got those people who were there early out of the cold.&uot;

Cook admitted that state-level officials administering the federal energy assistance funds later told him he should have let the crowd wait. &uot;But it was a mistake of the mind, not the heart,&uot;&160;he said.

The tickets did not guarantee those people would qualify for assistance – only that they could come back during office hours to apply. If people did not meet income limits or other requirements or had received energy assistance in the last year, their applications still would not be approved, Cook said.

In all, the center has already received more than 350 applications for utility bill assistance, Cook said..

He said applicants should know within 30 to 60 days whether they will receive assistance.

&uot;We’re asking applicants to go ahead and pay their bills if they can,&uot; Cook said.

No matter how many applications are submitted, the two workers taking applications can only process up to 100 applications a day, he said.

For those whose applications are approved, the assistance funds will be paid straight to the gas or electric company, and the applicant will receive a credit on his bill.

The agency received $42,287 from the federal government to help Concordia Parish residents pay high utility costs.

&uot;We should get more funds soon, but I don’t know when we will find out or how much we will get,&uot;&160;Cook said.

The Low-Income Energy Assistance Program is open to 60 years old and older, disabled people and people with children up to 5 years old on a first come, first served basis, said LaSalle CAA Director Dorothy Oliver.

Income limits for the program range from $1,044 a month for a one-person household to $3,581 for an eight-person household.