About 25 residents of Larrabee Village will board a bus Thursday and head to Augusta to speak on their own behalf, imploring lawmakers not to cut $700,000 that supports independent living services for low-income, frail elderly in subsidized apartments.

With state revenues down $95 million, Gov. John Baldacci has proposed budget cuts totaling $70 million from the Department of Health and Human Services, which includes $700,000 for independent living projects. According to John Gallagher, executive director of Westbrook Housing, Larrabee Village receives about $300,000 per year from the state, all of which would be eliminated in the proposal.

Jerry Finks, president of the resident council, said he thought it would be most effective for the residents to face the legislators in person.

“You can send all the letters you want, and you can make all the phone calls you want,” he said Tuesday. “We would just like to make an appearance up there.”

Larrabee Village houses 150 tenants, about 40 of which receive services funded by the state, including a 24-hour, on-call resident assistant; transportation to the grocery store; and housekeeping. The services are administered by the Southern Maine Agency on Aging.

The residents will be speaking at a 1 p.m. public hearing by the Appropriations and Financial Affairs Committee, along with the Joint Standing Committee on Health and Human Services. Their bus will depart from Larrabee Village at 10 a.m.

According to Finks, the residents are nervous because for many, the budget cuts would mean they would be unable to continue living in their apartments – which have become the homes they love.

“We’re very happy here,” he said. “Nobody really wants to leave.”