| " Then the furnace expelled poisonous gas into the electrician's Tewksbury house last week, causing a tenuous two days alternately filled with an unsettling cold and a bleating carbon monoxide alarm." " "We had to evacuate," said Brian, who's been staying in a motel with his four children and wife since Saturday, and who asked that his last name not be used." " Lowell's Community Teamwork Incorporated, one of 25 community action centers in the state, is paying for both the hotel and Brian's new furnace. The Berkshire Community Action Council provides similar help." " The state's community groups helped 143,000 Massachusetts families fill their tanks with heating oil, pay for natural gas and even provide timber for wood stoves last year through a federally funded program called fuel assistance." " On Monday, President Bush proposed what program managers say would be the largest cut to the program that helps financially struggling residents, formally named the Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program, or LIHEAP." " "We think it's just dangerous to cut this program," said Karen Frederick, executive director of Community Teamwork, which helped 8,000 families in 21 communities last year." " Don Atwater, executive director of the Berkshire group, said the office helps 6,000 county families each year." " Susan Brittain, director of energy programs at CTI, fields calls
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