1971-01-27; Clare Sentinel

              CITY LIBRARY
4TH & MCEWAN
XX
Dfte Clare Sentinel
FIFTEEN CENTS
16 PAGES
WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 27, 1971
OUR 93rd NEW YEAR SERIES
VOL. 79 NO. 21
More than $2 million
spent on welfare here
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Direct relief welfare costs in
Clare County totalled nearly $100,
000 in 1970, but the actual cost of
all forms of social service aid
offered to county residents paid
for by local, state and federal
programs amounted to over $2.1
million in 1970, according to Pat
Redmond, director of the Clare
County Social Services Department.
According to Clifford Sanford,
director of Social Services, here's
the way it works:
- Old Age Assistance (OAA):
county pays nothing except 10% of
administrative costs. State and
federal governments share all of
program costs and 90% of administrative costs.
- Aid to Dependent Children
(ADC): same as OAA.
- Aid to the Disabled: same as
OAA.
- Medical Assistance   (Medicaid): same as OAA.
The number of cases in each
program varies from month to
month, but currently is running at
roughly these figures: 130 on OAA,
230 families on ADC, 110 Disabled
230 on Medical Assistance.
The programs listed above are
called categorical assistance programs, a useful term because
the recipients fit tidily into a special category - they are old or
blind or disabled. They are children whose parents have insufficient income; they are people with
medical expenses they cannot pay.
Anyone who needs help and
comes to the welfare department
is put into one of the above categories if at all possible. If it
is not possible, then DIRECT RELIEF is given. That's where local
costs have soared. In direct relief cases,, the county pays 60%
of the bill. The state finances
the other 40% (being, in turn, reimbursed partially by the federal
government).
This 60% adds up to a tidy sum-
just under $100,000 for 1970.
The number of direct relief
cases can change even more drastically from month to month than
categorical aids, but currently
there are about 135 families on
this   type   of aid in  the  county.
How much do the people get who
receive aid? Let's look at a fairly
typical sampling (hypothetical cases):
1. On Marigold Ave. in Any-
town lives John Henry, 75 years
old. He gets Old Age Assistance.
He lives in his own home. Henry
gets a monthly check, called a
grant, based on $46.50 for food,
clothing and incidentals and $19
for heat and utilities. OAA and
other aid recipients are allowed
up to $80 a month for housing.
However, they do not get $80
if actual housing costb are less.
John Henry's are less because his
home is paid for. He has only
taxes, insurance and maintenance
to pay, averaging $600 per year.
He's therefore allowed $50 a month
for housing. It all adds up to
$115.50 a month.
But Henry gets a Social Security check each month of $73. This
is deducted from the $115.50 budget. Thus his OAA check is for
$42.50 a month. Henry also gets
medical assistance as needed.
2) A bit further along on Marigold Ave. lives Maribeth Tucker,
an ADC mother with triplets. She
gets a check of $253 each month.
Broken down, this represents $148
for "personal needs" - food, clothing and incidentals; $25 for
household needs (fuel and utilities)
and $80 (the maximum) rent.
3) In the last house on Marigold
Av,e., the Grady family of 4 gets
direct relief. The Gradys get $120
per month cash allowance for food,
clothing and incidentals. The
county also pays their rent, $80
and heat and utilities which aver
age $25 a month. Rent, heat and
utilities are paid by the welfare
dept. directly to the landlords and
utility companies. The total cost
is $225 a month for this family.
"Medicare" is a federal health
insurance program for people over
65.
"Medicaid", also called "Medical Assistance" is a state/federal
program which costs the county
nothing. Only certain categories
of persons are eligible. These include all welfare, recipients and
people who, except for too much
income, would be eligible for OAA.
ADC, Aid to the Blind or Aid to
the Disabled, but who can't quite
pay  their  medical   bills.
Another program operated by
the county department is food
stamps. It costs the county nothing except 60% of administration
costs. Everyone on public assistance plus low income families at
designated levels can buy food
stamps. About 1,860 low-income
families now buy the stamps.
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IN PREPARATION for this weekend's annual Winter
Sports Carnival in Clare skiing fans tried their skills
on the slopes of Snowsnake Ski Lodge near Harrison.
Snowmobile  races  are scheduled to take place this
weekend in Harrison at the Clare County Fairgrounds
and near Clare at the former Watervliet Paper Mill.
See pages six through nine for expanded coverage
of winter sports. (Sentinel Photo)
Harrison loses accreditia
spec/a
HARRISON— Voters in the Harrison School District will be asked
to approve a $2.9 million bond request to finance construction of a
new high school?and other school-
facilities in order to relieve overcrowded conditions.
Members of the Harrison Board
of Education with just minutes to
spare, filed application Monday
night  with the   State  Superinten-
action schedul
dent of Public Instruction seeking
permission to place the request
on a special ballot scheduled for
March 8.
Harrison Schools Superintendent
Robert Larson announced Thursday that the University of Michigan Bureau of School Services has
dropped Harrison High School from
its list of accredited schools effective July 1,1971.
Youth work program to start
Working space is the only major
thing holding back full operations
of a federally funded program in
Clare County for youth of low income families that is designed to
improve their social and economic environment.
Funds have been allocated to
SixCap, a federally financed program of the Office of Economic
Opportunity to begin a program
in Clare County as an economic
development program for youth in
the area.
"The only thing that is keeping
us from really getting under way
is adequate work space,'' said Ken
Dennis, Sixcap staff member and
regional coordinator.
Dennis and Mrs. Thelma Varney
also of Sixcap have been involved
in forming the youth development
program in Clare and Gladwin
Counties. Currently youth from
the   Beaverton area are develop
ing a self-help program in work
space donated by Brown Machinery Company in Beaverton.
Limited operations have begun
in Clare County in Harrison at
the VFW Hall and in an unheated
garage near Farwell.
"While we appreciate the use of
the garage," Mrs. Varney said,
"It's far from ideal, especially
in the cold weather. It's essential
that we find some working area
soon or the program will not be
able to develop to its fullest potential."
The work space area need a-
mounts to about 1,500 square feet,
according to Dennis. He said a
donation of the work space or the
use. of a building must be an "in-
kind" donation , that is, no rent
can be paid. However, funds from
the project would be used to pay
insurance,   minor  remodeling  of
More than 7,000 new
18-20 voters in county
the  facility  and  cost  of utilities
used in the program.
Sixcap officials and seven Clare
area business men met Monday
to discuss development plans for
the program. The businessmen,
along with representatives from
Farwell and Harrison, will serve
as members of a board of directors of a non-profit corporation
for the program. The board will
act in an advisory capacity and
encourage the youth to perform
as much of the actual work and record keeping on their own; similar
to the experiences learned in the
Junior Achievement program
which is designed to acquaint youth
with the American business
system.
Officials from Sixcap estimate
approximately 200 youths from 16
to 21 in Clare County could benefit
from pre vocational training that
could be derived from the youth
development   program.
The Youth Development Program   was   started  in  the   Clare
area with a $14,660 grant from the
federally funded Office of Econco-
mic Opportunity.
"This, in effect, means that
they feel Harrison High School is
sub-standard," said Larson. "It
means actually that no student
graduating from here next year
may enter any state-supported college in Michigan without first passing tests."
The move came as no surprise,
since U of M Consultant James E.
Ossian last year warned that several adverse conditions must be
improved or the school would lose
its accreditation. The conditions
remain unchanged.
Ossian noted in his evaluation
that the district's building program had been unable to keep a-
breast of an exploding student population and that a further dramatic increase in students "has aggravated an already impossible
situation."
The U of M bureau called "deplorable" • the present split sessions at Harrison High School,
wherein students attend classes
only five hours per day without
study periods. The school currently remains in constant, session 10 hours every day, with middle school students beginning
classes at noon when upper grades
leave.
"I'd have been ready to resign,"
said Larson, "if they had blamed
these conditions on the staff. Instead they praised the staff for
making progress despite such
stress. We don't have the room
to provide all of these students
.with the education, recreation and
study facilities they need. We
need more room. It's that simple."
County's law officers hon
Twenty Clare County law enforcement officers received certificates of achievement during
special ceremonies in Clare Monday night in recognition of the
completion of a special eight-week
training program.
The achievement certificates
were presented to the officers at
a dinner held at the Town and Country Restaurant by Sgt. Dan Kos-
trzewa, commander of the Mt.
Pleasant State Police Post.
In the informal ceremony Sgt.
Kostrzewa said, "as a police of-
A change in the voting picture,
numerically and politically may be
expected in Clare County as a result of the Supreme Court decision
giving the franchise in national
elections to the 18 to 20-year-olds.
According to a projection of census figures, there will be a pool
"of some 1,020 local residents in
the new voting-age brackets when
the next federal election rolls a-
round, in 1972.
They are the ones who are i6,
17 and 18 years old at the present
time. By 1972 they will be 18,
19 and 20.
In all but three states, Georgia.,
Kentucky and Alaska,' persons in
that age group have not been
eligible up to this time. Now,
unless they are unable to satisfy
the minimum residency requirement, 30 days, they may register.
They may not be barred because
of inability tb pass a literacy
test.
Extending voting privileges to
the additional 1,020 in Clare County
was equivalent to giving the fran
chise to an extra 6.5 per cent of the
local population.
Elsewhere throughout the
country, with the addition of some
11.5 million young people to the
rolls, another 5.6 per cent of the
population   gets   voting  rights.
The totals are exclusive of
others who will now qualify by virtue of the fact that residency requirements are reduced to 30 days
and by the fact that literacy tests
are to be discontinued.
How much of an impact on election results, locally and in other
areas, this influx of new voters
will exert* is a matter being given
considerable thought in political
circles. The consensus is that
there will be no great difference.
Two authorities on voting behavior, Ben J. Wattenberg and Richard M. Scammon, authors of
The Real Majority, believe that if
the 18 to 20 group had been able
to vote in the 1968 election they
would have voted almost identically as those in the 21 to 24
group.
ficer I have to take my hat off
to you. You are police professionals who do a professional job
in a professional way."
Those receiving the awards were
officers from the Clare Auxiliary
Police Force, the Clare County
Sheriff's Posse and the Clare Police Department.
In order to receive the award,
individual officers had to attend
classes over an eight-week period
which included instruction on
search and seizure procedures,
conservation law enforcement, juvenile and probation programs, arrest and court procedures and
traffic control programs as well
as other subjects.
Officers receiving the awards
include Donald Case, C. L. Shayler
Jim Carrow, Gerrit Hamstra,
George Shayler, G. L. Dickerson,
Gerald Gingery, D.B. McNerney, J.
C. Ellsworth, Richard Riley, Jack
Ridderman, Charles Paxton, Craig
H. Clair, Jerry Snyder, Giles Anderson, Donald Mussell, Sharon
Ellsworth, Mary Mussell, Thomas
Killewald, 'Elry Tice, Donald Shepard, Michaei W. Becker and Noble
Davis.
Instructors during the special
training program included- state
police troopers Greg Holmquest
and Robert Flaugher of the Mt.
Pleasant State Police Post, Richard Allen, Clare County assistant
prosecutor, Alex Strange, Clare
County probate judge, Lyle Swan-
son, probate court juvenile officer,
Ted Tetreault, parole officer for
Clare Circuit Court, Jon Ringleburg District Court judge and
Wayne Berg, District Court magistrate
Bank officers el
STATE POLICE Sgt. Dan Kostrzewa presents D.B.
McNerney with a certificate of achievement oh completion of a special eight week training program for
members of the Clare Police Department, the Clare
Auxiliary and the Clare County Sheriff's Posse.
(Sentinel Photo)
Officers and directors of the
Citizens Bank and Trust Company
of Clare were reelected during
the annual board of directors meeting of the bank.
In addition to the election of
banking officials, special operating hours were announced for February.
The bank will be closed February 12, Abraham Lincoln's
birthday, and the following Monday, February 15, which is the
birthday celebration of George.
Washington.
Because of the two closing days
as required by the newly enacted
federal uniform holiday act, the
bank will operate special hours
on Saturday* February 13 from 9
a.m. to noon, according to Frank
LaGoe, president of Citizens Bank.
Members of the board of direc
tors reelected include Robert S.
Bennett, James S. Bicknell, III,
John M. Bicknell, Gilbert A. Cur-
rie, LaGoe, Roy.B. Matteson, Dan
McDonald, Murray L. Miller, Alan.
W. Ott, Richard Todd, Dirk B.
Waltz and James A. Kendall. Todd
was elected chairman of the board
of directors.
Bank officers elected include
LaGoe as president, Miller as
vice president and auditor, John
M. Bicknell, vice president and
cashier, Matteson, vice president, Harold Prout, assistant vice
president, Phillip Breen, assistant vice president, Donna Lozen,
Mary Lewis, Stanley Warner, Mer-
na Yankee and Marcus Ruhle, assistant cashiers; and Jon Warren
assistant cashier and assistant
trust officer.
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