| | 
The
Official Newspaper of Manchester and Delaware County, Iowa
Tuesday,
January 3, 2006 | |
New
transitional program helps mentally ill
by
Latisha Sand |
Delaware
County’s chronically mentally ill residents will have a new living facility
soon.
The newly named Windhill Apartments on the Penn Center campus in
Delhi will be used as a stepping stone for residents in a 24 hour live-in facility
who are wanting to transition to independent living. | 
|
“We
want to provide a realistic, independent living environment,” said Diane
Brecht, the administrator for Penn Center, Inc.
The building, which is
just west of Penn Center, use to be a large hall that was used for activities
and get-togethers. Now the building has three apartments, two single and a double.
“We
have had so many donations,” said Brecht, “so the apartments are partially
furnished. But there is all new appliances and all of them are handicapped accessible.”
Two
out of the three bedrooms have outside entryways. The third has an exit door right
by the doorway to the apartment. A fourth apartment
is in the works and, according to Supervisor Steve Knickels will hopefully be
completed by July 1. | 
LATISHA
SAND/Press
The newly named Windhill Apartments on the Penn Center campus holds
three apartments, one double and two single. The apartments are for chronically
mentally ill Delaware County residents. The apartments, which one is pictured
above, are partially furnished with donated furniture. All the apartments have
new appliances and are handicap accessible.
|
There
are four potential clients for the apartments and, after the hiring is complete,
Brecht hopes to have the residents moved in by Jan. 15.
Although there
will be two full-time and three part-time workers helping the residents 24 hours
a day, the residents are responsible for their own apartments.
“There
will be a support system with the staff helping the residents with their budgeting,
cooking (and other activites),” said Brecht. “But the residents are
responsible for paying the bills and other expenses.”
The staff will
provide transportation to activities and RTA will provide transportation to their
jobs.
Susan Hermann was recently hired as the coordinator for the programs
and plans to have group sessions that help the residents understand their illness,
medications and help them expand on their social skills and others skills so they
can reintegrate back into society.
It is planned for the residents to be
within the program for six months to a year and, if this transistional program
is successful, Brecht says she hopes there will be additional apartments and/or
another residential facility that will be yet another step for the residents.
“The
residents are used to a 24 hour structured setting,” said Brecht of residents
who live in places like Penn Center. “This facility is less structured but
they will still have the support.”
The programs are modeled after
successful programs in Cedar Rapids and Des Moines.
“We’ve had
tremendous community support,” said Brecht. “Many people have been involved
in getting this together.” This includes Peggy Petlon, the county’s
metal health professional, and the Board of Supervisors. The funding for the building’s
renovation and the programs came from the Mental Health budget and state and federal
revenues.
“The county has talked about this for a while,” said
Petlon, but no one thought it was possible.
“It’s an exciting
use of the building,” said Supervisor Shirley Hendricks. “It’s
a positive thing to have this step in between.”
Delaware County residents
are the priority for the apartments and the residents don’t have to come
from Penn Center. Even if a person is living on their own and the medical professional
thinks the residents needs a little more help, he or she could refer the patients
to the program.
Knickels thinks the program is great. “If they can
make it here, then they should know they can move into the community.” |
 | Former
publisher, editor dies at 76 |
Lenard
E. Strasburg | The
former editor and publisher of the Manchester Press, Lenard E. Strasburg, 76,
died Dec. 23 at his home in Manchester.
Strasburg started at the Press
and the Manchester Democrat-Radio in September of 1952 as a sports editor, photographer
and ad salesman. By the next spring, Strasburg was the news and sports editor
and photographer and when Jim Goodwin sold him the papers in 1967, Strasburg became
editor and publisher.
In 1987, Strasburg was honored by the Iowa Press
Association, now known as the Iowa Newspaper Association, as a Master Editor Publisher,
a high honor within the newspaper field. |
His
column, “Riffles and Reflections” was read by residents and subscribers
for over 22 years, until his retirement in 1989.
In 1994, he sold the
Manchester Press to News Publishing Company, out of Wisconsin. The paper is still
currently owned by them. |
Over
50 percent of snow removal budget left
County completed 12 projects
in 2005
by Latisha Sand |
As
2006 begins, the Delaware County Secondary Roads Department is preparing for another
great year.
“We had such a good year,” said the County Engineer,
Mark Nahra. “Some of our work is done for 2006 already.”
Last
year the department worked on about 12 projects, including replacing four bridges
and starting two others that will be completed in early spring.
“We
got rid of two bridges that were among the poorest ones in the county,” said
Nahra.
Four and a half miles of a road between U.S. Highway 20 and Highway
38, near the Tri-State drag strip, was grated for pavement this year.
“That
will be paved in the summer of 2006 or 2007,” said Nahra. “It’s
nice for them (the grated roads) to go through a freeze and thaw cycle before
paving.”
The county hopes the paving of this road will take some of
the traffic off X47, the road from Hopkinton to U.S. Highway 20.
The Delaware
County Secondary Roads Department also completed a $1.5 million project.
The
department took over two roads in two Delaware County towns because of a legislative
bill. One road in Masonville and one in Ryan were resurfaced this year with the
last mile in Ryan to be completed in 2006.
As for this year, there will
be one bridge replaced on Robinson Road, or 110th Ave., Goosehill Road will have
grating work and bridgework done and a bridge by Petersburg on 310th Ave. will
begin by mid summer.
They are also working with Jones County on a paving
project near Highway 38 and may even pave 240th Street out of Delhi until 260th
Ave.
But since some of the 2006 projects are already done this year, the
fiscal year budget is off. Nahra said it was hard when bridge contractors were
ready to go on bridges that weren’t budgeted until July 1.
Since the
department gets some of their revenue from property taxes, the wintry month of
December didn’t help the budget either. But Nahra isn’t worried, yet.
“We’ve
used about 35 to 40 percent of our snow removal budget,” said Nahra.
Over
the last two years, Nahra has budgeted $290,000 in anticipation for an average
winter. Last year’s winter, 2004-2005, cost the county $256,000 and the year
before that, 2003-2004, they about spent $279,000.
Although Nahra doesn’t
have the exact figures for this winter yet, the department’s crew worked
over 20 days in a row, at 12 hours a day, to remove over a foot of snow accumulated
December snow.
“We have a very good crew,” said Nahra. “Getting
out (to work, school, etc.) is more important now.”
The department
has 13 snowplows and 11 routes. Each snowplow travels between 18-24 miles on a
route. The road grators, which go out on the gravel roads, travel 60-70 miles
per route.
With 914 miles worth of roads in the county, Nahra thinks his
crew does an excellent job getting out there and removing as much snow as they
can. The crews stay on the paved roads until they are open for two lanes, but
usually only go over the gravel roads once.
“We only do snow removal
within our budget,” said Nahra. “We don’t have a reserve of money
waiting. We have to transfer money from another budget” in order to maintain
operation.
The department did, however, add a sand/salt mixture barn in
Ryan that will help the plows stay on the road longer. Before, when the guys ran
out, they would have to drive back to Delaware to reload and then go back out
and apply the mixture.
The cost of diesel fuel has also gone up since last
year and that is hurting the budget too. The bills for the December sand, salt
and diesel fuel is over $100,000. The department was paying, on an average, $2.05
per gallon in November.
“We are very fuel intensive,” said Nahra.
“Last year at this time we were paying around $1 a gallon.”
Some
of the department’s vehicles will go through 90-110 gallons of fuel a day,
while others will go through 50-70 gallons. And with some routes tougher than
others, those require more fuel and more work.
“It’s the same
level of effort,” said Nahra, “whether we have six inches or an inch
of snow. We are still plowing.” But it’s the gravel roads that cause
the most problems with an increase amount of snow.
Sometimes, as soon as the
grater has been through, those roads will drift back shut.
Nahra wants
to remind people to be patient. Some ask why the county doesn’t send trucks
out at night like towns do, but Nahra said that towns have street lamps and curbs
to help keep the drivers on the road. Out in the country, the drivers only have
their headlights and if the snow is blowing, sometimes they can’t see where
the road is.
For the fiscal year of 2007, which starts July 1, 2006, Nahra
said he will be asking the Board of Supervisors for an increase of property tax
to help pay for the increasing costs.
“Just to cover the fuel expenses,
the property tax will have to increase by 10 percent,” said Nahra.
But,
for right now, Nahra is staying calm and watchful and hopes there isn’t as
much snow or freezing rain as there had been in December. |
Senator
Hancock is ready for next week’s session
The Iowa
Legislature will be starting its new session on Jan. 9, 2006, and there are several
items that will be on the front burner for Iowa Legislators. Senator Tom Hancock
talked about some of the things that will likely receive attention by the Legislature
during this term.
Renewable Energy is one of the items that will be discussed
by lawmakers. Hancock said some of the topics will include availability of E85
fuel, wind generation and geothermal as well as ethanol and biodiesel.
“I
don’t think we’ll see any mandates, but I think there’ll be incentives
for ethanol and biodiesel use,” said Hancock, who added that there are about
100,000 E85 ready vehicles in Iowa at this time.
He said he supports building
new ethanol and biodiesel plants in the state and Jones County.
“We
feed the world, now it’s time to fuel the world,” Hancock commented.
The Sex Offender bill will also be in the spotlight again this term and
Hancock said recommendations will be heard from an interim study committee. Some
of the items considered are the classification of sex offenders, GPS monitoring
and assessments of the likelihood that he/she will offend again.
Hancock
said, “Funding would be an issue, there’s no question, but I’m
confidant we could do that.”
He said he felt local mandates by communities
is being done in an effort to protect the communities.
“I think they’re
doing the same thing lawmakers have been doing, trying to protect their citizens,”
he added.
Hancock said the state should try to support small businesses
by helping them grow. This could be done through the Iowa Values Fund.
“We
have a great climate for business in Iowa. We’re middle of the road for taxes,”
he said.
In addition, Hancock would like to see insurance pools started
for small business owners who employ 25 people or less. By pooling together it
would increase their opportunity to provide health insurance to employees.
Water
quality has been a problem in Iowa for the past several years, and this issue
will probably get attention this term as well. Hancock said he has attended water
quality seminars and met with the DNR concerning this problem.
He said
the current system allows only for water treatment plant operators to make recommendations
to the DNR for training and testing. He would like to see a mentoring or training
program for other water treatment employees in the event the operator was unavailable
or needed to be replaced.
“Water contamination is everyone’s
problem,” explained Hancock. “Farm run-off is a huge issue.”
He
added that the state is considering remote sensors in waterways to check contamination
levels.
The sensors were developed at Iowa State University.
The 50-cent
cigarette tax proposed by Governor Vilsack could be used to help fund watersheds
in the state.
The cigarette tax may also be used for healthcare through
restoring the Senior Living Trust. This would benefit those needing home-based
healthcare.
Representative Lukan calls for a bold session
Representative
Steve Lukan said heading into the 2006 Legislative Session next week, many people
don’t think lawmakers will get much accomplished. The New Vienna Republican,
who represents Iowa House District 32, expects a bold session coming up, despite
an even split between Republicans and Democrats in the Iowa Senate and 2006 being
an election year.
A topic Lukan says House Republicans want to make a priority
this session will be the energy situation. He said they hope to build on the positives
of the past that have allowed Iowa to become fifth in the nation in the amount
of wind energy produced, and support it further with another round of tax credits.
Lukan
said there would also be a call for more investment in more renewable fuels to
boost the use of biomass, biodiesel and ethanol. One thing being proposed is a
concentrated effort to expand the availability of E-85, the fuel that is an 85
percent alcohol blend.
It can cost $80-100,000 to install pumps that can
handle E-85 fuel, and that cost has prohibited more retailers from offering it
to motorists. Lukan said they want to give up to $25,000 per retailer that would
couple with money available from the Federal Energy Bill, bringing the total available
to handle E-85 up to $35,000.
Lukan said they also hope to work with the
Iowa Department of Natural Resources on easing
restrictions for handling E-85
that would allow conversion of some current pumps for a period of one to two years.
Education
is a major concern each session, and this year should be no different. Lukan said
there is discussion about creating a plan that would allow a student who has satisfied
graduation
requirements by the end of their junior year to go onto college
and apply for the state aid that would have been paid for their final year of
high school (about $5,100) to be put toward college tuition as long as it was
a college in Iowa.
Lukan said there would also be discussion in the House
about giving bonuses to math and science teachers, which are harder for school
districts to find because of competition with the private sector.
Health
care is another issue Lukan expects to be debated this session. He said his party
hopes to pass incentives that people could couple with federal incentives to create
health savings accounts. Money would be put into these tax-free accounts by the
individual, which would build savings and allow them to scale back coverage needs.
That would give incentive to raise deductibles and would result in a drop in the
premium.
“I think it will be an opportunity for people to bring in
a little competition,” Lukan explained.
“Hopefully it will help
lower the price.”
There is also a plan to promote the use of long-term
care insurance through tax credits. Lukan said a large part of the Medicaid budget
is for long-term care, but if more people purchase long-term coverage, over time
it will free up money for other uses in the state budget. Lukan said people would
want to have their own long-term care coverage for choice in their level of coverage.
Lukan
said there would also be debate this session on property tax, eminent domain and
possible changes to the sex offender laws. |
109
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