Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: WEDNESDAY, May 19, 1993 TAG: 9305190554
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV-2 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
SOURCE: PAUL DELLINGER STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: PULASKI LENGTH: Medium
Monday night, 21 people voiced their concerns at a public hearing on the budget that drew a crowd of about 60.
The county Board of Supervisors will adopt the budget next Monday.
The main concern for eight of the speakers was the possible closing of Newbern Elementary School.
Although the School Board has not scheduled Newbern for closing, the possibility has been mentioned to adjust to the loss of 500 students over the past five years.
Jefferson Elementary will close this year, and parents with children at Newbern worry their school will be next. Tammy Craft and Dr. Scott Brandau asked the supervisors to join in the parents' letter-writing campaign to legislators to seek more state funding for education.
"It seems like you take from the school system, you add to the prison system," said another speaker wanting to preserve the Newbern school.
Shannon Turner, president of the Pulaski County Education Association, asked the supervisors to restore funds to the school system as a whole.
The schools already are seeing the effect of budget cuts in the increase in class sizes, she said. Turner said 28 or 29 pupils in a class might not seem like that many to adults who remember being in larger classes, but today's teachers see more youngsters needing help with special problems.
The local Health Department also had supporters at the hearing.
Linda Stowers, a single parent, brought both her small children with her to the speaker's stand when she addressed the board on increasing Health Department funds.
"He's alive because of the doctors and the Health Department," she said of her 5-year-old son. "They have made a world of difference for my children."
New River Valley District Health Director Margaret Robinson asked that the Pulaski County dental clinic not be closed, as did some petitioners.
H. Lynn Chenault, executive director of the New River Valley Community Services Board, said a proposed cut in local funding of almost $15,000 actually would cost the agency 10 to 20 times as much because of the matching state and federal money it would lose. The proposed cut amounts to 20 percent of the agency's local funding.
Terry Smusz, executive director of New River Community Action, said the $10,000 budget cut there was coming at a time when more Pulaski County residents were falling under poverty guidelines. The number increased by 16 percent between 1980 and 1990, she said.
The Community Services Board is the umbrella organization for services involving mental health, retardation and substance abuse. The community action agency provides help for low-income people.
Becki Gunn, with the Pulaski office of Rep. Rick Boucher, D-Abingdon, said the congressional office was referring increasing numbers of people needing help to New River Community Action.
Janet Johnson said the Pulaski community action office had served 791 people in nine months who needed emergency help because their financial resources were exhausted. "We help people who have nowhere else to turn," she said.
Several county employees also spoke out against a proposed reduction in the amount of health insurance the county pays for its employees.
Mona McFall, a county social services employee whose husband and son are both disabled, said the county decreasing what it would pay on health insurance could leave her bankrupt. She could not cancel the family insurance because of her husband and son, but could not afford to keep it, either.
Donnie Simpkins with the county Sheriff's Department urged the county to cut promotional T-shirts, gift certificates to worthy employees or even holidays before cutting the employer's share of insurance coverage. He said employees have the same bills but will be taking smaller paychecks home.
The proposed budget totals $37.6 million, down from $40 million.
The school fund is down from $17.5 million this year to a proposed $17.27 million. Although this is not a major drop, the School Board originally had sought an increase of $757,800.
The county's funding for health and human services would go from $522,281 to $436,342.
There would be a $66,000 reduction in the county's share of health insurance for nonschool employees.
by CNB