THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Friday, August 16, 1996 TAG: 9608140104
SECTION: CHESAPEAKE CLIPPER PAGE: 08 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY SCOTT MCCASKEY, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: 41 lines
A retirement and the reconfiguration of the city's human services agencies will bring changes to Chesapeake's Tidewater Juvenile Detention Home.
Robert A. Truitt directed the home for 30 years before retiring July 31 at age 64. Former assistant director Frank J. Kern is now the acting director, but he probably will assume a slightly revamped version of his former position as a result of the establishment of a new human services department.
The Juvenile Detention Home, along with Social Services, the Community Corrections Program, and the Comprehensive Services Act Program, was recently put under the umbrella of the newly created Department of Human Services. The redesign is an effort to consolidate human services agencies. The department's director, Doris Sloan Roberts, will take the new post Sept. 16.
According to interim City Manager Clarence V. Cuffee, Kern will become one of Robert's two assistant directors. Kathy G. Goldberg, now acting as director of the department, will be the other assistant director when Roberts arrives. Kern or Goldberg probably will act as director of human services in Roberts' absence.
``The way we envision it is that the department will have one director with two assistant directors,'' Cuffee said. ``We need one director with experience in social services and the other with experience in operating a detention home. That's the way it structurally will be set up. Roberts may have ideas for additional responsibilities.''
Kern, 48, said he will have to see how ``everything unravels.''
``I knew lots of possibilities existed, but we'll have to wait and see what possibilities manifest themselves in organizational change,'' Kern said. ``All cities are following the anthem of organizational transformation. City Council approved the consolidation and we'll have to await what the new director of human services and the city manager designate.''
Kern said the detention home is a ``full-time job.'' Located at 420 Albemarle Drive behind City Hall, the facility has been in operation for 35 years, serving all Southside cities except Norfolk. The site holds 100 beds and houses juvenile offenders ages 12 to 17.
KEYWORDS: JUVENILE DETENTION CENTER CHESAPEAKE by CNB