1969-06-25; Clare Sentinel

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CITY LIBRARY
4TH . MCEWAN
486X7
XX*
i. enttnei
-.Fifteen Cents
Sixteen Pages
Clare Michigan, Wednesday June 25, 1969
Our 91st Year
New Series Vol. 77
No. 43
Summer Readers
Start To Work
The Clare Elementary
school and the Federal
government are getting
along just fine thank you I
That would be the obvious appraisal on examination of Clare's summer
reading improvement
program which is operated entirely with federal
Title I program monies.
The reading improvement workshop, known in
children's language simply as, "summer school"
is in its fourth year, at
Clare and' all four years
it has been directed by
■Mrs. Ruth Schunk. Perhaps more unique than a
director being with the
•program all .four years is
that all nine of the reading teachers, have taught
in the program since its
inception.
The reading school will
probably serve about 120
students this year, down
from the 146 figure of
1966. The students attend
school from 9:00 a.m. to
11:30 a.m. for six weeks.
Reading has in the past
been the only subject
taught but this year Mrs.
Schunk is going to experiment with mathematics
instruction for the fifth
and sixth graders. "We
want to see if substantial
improvement can be made
in both subjects if they
are taught at the same
v time to the youngsters,"
said Mrs. Schunk.
The students day is
primarily involved with
reading improvement
with the emphasis clearly
being on individual help.
The teacher-student ratio
figures out to about 12-1
and the individual treatment that is possible, is
noted by Mrs. Schunk and
"Al'Schumm, '"efementary
principal; as the factor
that makes. the summer
program worthwhile.
The. individual treatment tomes in the form
of personal aid as well
as work with various
machines designed to improve reading. The machines are better adapted
to the summer program
.than the regular school
year reading classes because of the smallness of
the groups.
Tape-recorders are
used extensively in the
teaching process accord-
ing to Mrs. Schunk. They
are used primarily with
students with phonetics
problems and "are quite
valuable for teaching a
child how specific sounds
are formed," says the
Veteran teacher.
Another machine among
many used, is the visual
projector whichputs word
on the screen at a rate
prescribed by the teacher. The rate can be
slowed or increased at
the teachers discretion
considering the student's
skill. Mrs. Schunk said
"this machine teaches the
child to grasp complete
phrases and we can move
him along by increasing
the speed or we can take
extra time with him and
slow  down  the machine.
The individual treatment
goes much farther too.
The students are grouped
for learning npt according to their official grade
level, but to their reading
level. The teachers keep
a daily record on each
student and at the end of
the week the staff studies
the reports and designs
an individual lesson plan
for the student for the next
week. "That way", says
Mrs. Schunk, "each student gets maximum help
in the time allowed."
This individual attention is even predominant
in the selec tion and
screening of students who
will attend the summer
classes. Mrs. Schunk examines each student who
may possibly need help
for past performance and
thoroughly tests each student. She says, "the new
testing available in our
school system has made
our entire operation run
more effectively. We can
tell practically everything there is to know
about a child's development pattern by tests.
This is invaluable when
selecting children for
special programs such as
reading improvement.
Title I and Mrs. Schunk
See SUMMER page 16
CMC Hospital
Closes 20 Beds
Huber Will
Speak To VOP
Central Michigan Health
service has received a
temporary setback as
Central Michigan Community Hospital has been
forced to close down 20
beds.
The shutdown at the
hospital which serves the
patients of most Clare
area M.D.'sis blamed on a
sudden shortage of Registered and Licensed practical nurses. According to
Richard Pieratt, hospital
administrator, the emergency was brought on by
feceftt-graduations from '
the university, either of
the nurses or of the nurses, husbands,' who graduated and ' have left Mt.
Pleasant.
Pieratt also cited retirement and illness as
trimming his staff to a
critical point. He said,
"we wish to assure our
service area that this shut
•down will in no way prohibit or hamper caring for
the acutely ill or emergency cases, -this decrease in total beds, allows us to continue a
normal quality of nursing
and hospital care with a
normal staff ratio."
Hospital officials have
expressed the opinion that
the situation is very temporary and should not last
longer than August 1,1969.
The officials stressed that
the situation is not a financial one but a lack of
available people.
When the hospital announced the closing of the
20 beds they also issued
_an appeal to area R.N.s
'or LPNs who would be
willing to work part-time
during this, period.
The announcement came
after last Thursday's
hospital   board  meeting.
SUPREME COURT JUSTICE— Lin Cole, Clare High School junior was elected a
Supreme Court Justice at Girls State of Michigan last week. Lin was the only
member of her mock party, The Federalists, to win one of the seven highest offices. Pictured above are the ruling elite of 1969 Girl's State. Front row, left to
right, Pat Savitski, Marquette, Lt. Gov.; Diane Ankle, Birmingham, Gov; Lisa
Blasely, Warren, .Secretary of State.- Back Row, Chris Lambert, Troy, Supreme
Court Justice, Lin Cole, Pat Clement, Blissfield, Supreme Court Justice;and
Jennie Hurst, Dexter, Attorney General. The young girls were elected to their
.positions Wednesday of the Sunday to Sunday session and held office encountering
mock governmental situations for three days. Miss Cole tried a mock trial of
a pornography case with her supreme court cohorts which was deemed "probably
the best ever," by girls state officials.
Local Rotary Plays
Big Role In
State Senator Robert
Huber will be the special
guest speaker at a July
5, meeting of the' Clare
county chapter of the
Voice of the People organization, the tax reform
group which now t claims
over 400 members in
Clare County.
The Saturday meeting is
scheduled for 2 p.m. in
the basement conference
room of the Clare Coun .
ty Courthouse in Harrison.-
Huber, an avowed conservative who has most
recently made big headlines* with his attempt to
investigate disturbances
at the state's universities is, according to the
local group, one of the
few men in the state senate to openly support the
Voice campaign.
Local chapter officials
said, this week, "Senator
Huber is now convinced
that the taxpayers are
concerned enough with taxes to get involved and has
decided to support these
people in the effort to
reduce taxes and eliminate unnecessary spending.
Senator Huber believes
this interest comes at a
time when most citizens
let their government- go
its own way without
challenge."
The conservative Huber
feels according to I.H.
Brown publicity director
of the group, "that we
must implement those
things that have been tried
and found effective and
discard those things that
have been tried and found
wanting." Brown describes Huber's attitude as,
"Tell it like it is!"
The tax reform group
is attempting to make
property taxes more reasonable by reducing what
they, see as waste in. government at all levels,
county, state, and feceral.
The Voice group has
found Clare County as one
if its strongholds with the
claimed membership of
400 one of the highest in
the state. In addition, two
Clare county men, J.M.
Grim of Farwell and Lee
Swallow of Harrison are
on the state Voice of the
People committee. Swallow is co-chairman of the
state group and Grim was
elected executive secretary.
The group has issued a
public invitation to the
taxpayers of Roscommon,
Gladwin, Isabella, Mecosta, Osceola and Clare
counties to attend the
meeting which will include
in addition to Huber's
speech, reports concerning the local group's recent activities.
Sidewalk Days
Clare's annual Sidewalk
Sale is scheduled for Friday of this week and the
Chamber of Commerce
has p_eanuts for all the
visitors to the downtown
area and the C of C has
also arranged for movies
to be shown at the Ideal
Theater.
That will give mom and
dad a chance to take big
advantage of the Clare
bargains while the youngsters   enjoy  the movies.
The Sidewalk Sale will
be held Saturday if the
weatherman does not cooperate.
Local Rotarians played
an important part in Rotary District 631' s annual
Assembly Forum which
was held in the Doherty
Hotel on Thursday, June
19th. \,
Marvin Witbeck,
Clare's president," welcomed the seventy-five
participants and presided
over a part of the program which saw Walt
Kleiner, Wayne Hough,
Bob Schellhas, and Harold Ellenbas show how
a model Rotary meeting
should be conducted.
The morning program
was opened by District
Governor Carl Satow,
Frankenmuth, as he
greeted the group which
represented 27 clubs. He
introduced- Rotary International' s representative, James Toal of Monmouth, Illinois, who
spoke on "Our Purpose
Today." Past District
Governor, George Lauer
of Mt. Pleasant, spoke on
"How to Help Your Rotary Club Grow."
In the afternoon the
participants divided into
three groups; Presidents
secretarys, and club services. George Scheer,
Clare's incoming president and Robert Schellhas, Clare's presidentelect, represented the local organization. Al
Schumm, Clare's secretary, presided at the secretary' s meeting which
was designed to help new
secretaries with their responsibilities. Al was
responsible for the overall arrangements for the
day's activities.
Adelbert Huber, District 631' s incoming Governor from Alma, made
some closing remarks
about "The Year Ahead"
and James Toal and Carl
Satow brought the meeting t o a close with brief
comments.
A highlight of the day's
activities was P. D. G.
George Lauer's presentation of a pin to Carl
Satow for his service as
District Governor. Carl
received a , standing
ovation for his leadership
during the past year.
' ■)_
BILLS COMING—
readying tax bills
and Mrs
City Clerk Madge Ruark has been busy the past few weeks
for mailing. The deadline for mailing city tax bills is July 1
Ruark will beat that easily. The first batch went in the mail box Tuesday
and the mailing should be complete by the end of the week. The payment deadline
on the city bills is August 19. Bills are also mailed out on December 1. Mrs.
Ruark has had one staff member working with the tax bills almost exclusively
for two weeks and two others have put considerable time into their processing.
Clare Welfare Is A Million Dollar  Deal
(ED. Note) This article
begins the first of a three
part series which will
attempt 'to study in-depth
what makes county welfare click. Today's first
article gives an overview of the operation of
Welfare. The second part
of the series will discuss
in detail the specific state
programs which are administered and the series' third part will deal
with the new residency
requirements and how
they affect Clare County.
.By TIMMcGUIRE
■ Question: What do you
* a when you combine a
riverboat gambler, a
priestly counselor, a lawyer, a financier, and a
man who does all these
tasks with dignity and a
facilitating manner?
Question: What do you
have when you have an
operation that administers
a budget of over $1.4
million With a staff of 12
and . not only distributes
•money but guides and even
guards people in trouble
-- the worst kind of trouble in today's world—
money troubles?
. The answer to question
number one is Patrick
Redmond and the second
answer is the Clare Coun
ty Department of Social
Services, the county doctor which nurse financially and educationally ill
people back to good health
and on their feet.
Redmond, is the likely
choice of a rural county
social work executive if
one were to cast the part,
as he is relatively young,
very calm and extremely
candid. He says, "I enjoy
talking about our work
because as we administer
our program we usually •
do it knowing that for the
most part we are npt a
popular outfit with many
taxpayers. The best thing
we can do, then, is talk
about our work in the hope
that people will better
understand exactly what
we do."
Redmond came to Glare
County in 1965 when the
county Department of Welfare merged with the Bureau of Social Aid, a
state agency. The merger
which forrried the present
Department of Social Services was mandatory in
June of 1967 and was
authorized by the Michigan legislature.
Redmond feels the change '.
was necessary and successful saying, "it has cut
out a lot of duplication
and Welfare service has
increased tremendously."
What remains is a
county agency that in fact
spends very little county
money when considered in
light of its total budget.
Redmond told The Sentinel that his office administers about $1.4 million in funds each year
yet his county budget is
only $81,000. The rest
is state money Which in
most cases is matched by
federal funds. The county
Department of Social
Services primarily, at
least from the financial
point of view, is the state's
mediator. '
Redmond's office must
see to the wise and just
distribution of state monies and must also attempt to improve the wel- •
fare recipient's lot. Ina
nutshell that is the Department's job. Specifically the story is much
more complex and runs
the gamut from blind per-
sons to delinquent children.
County money provides
for direct relief or what
is known to the public as
'welfare'. These funds are
referred to by Redmond
as "right now funds."
He says, "people come in
her who ha va been riding
on a marginal income, a
sort of money fence. Suddenly, because of illness.
accident or unemployment
the family falls off that
fence and the people in
this income bracket
usually fall hard. This is
where direct county welfare comes in. We simply
give emergency funds to
destitute people who need
it and at the same time
try to add something constructive, in the line of
education and social help'!
Sentinel
Wi
More than direct relief
though, the county's
children's division,
established in 1967 and
heavily matched by state
funds provides for services for children ranging from a forsaken infant to a youth gone wrong
Surprisingly, it is Redmond's department that
handles adoptions in Clare
County and it is the department which handles
child abuse cases. It is
Redmond's department
which sues for. child neglect and in many cases
acts as a ward for the
youngsters.   It   is   Red
mond's department, "the
dole machine," as it is
sometimes referred to by
critics, that operates a
local girls training school
and a Boys Training
school. This department
even licenses ■ foster
homes in the county.
Other county funds are
used in the county hospitalization program
which is in fact coincident
with the direct relief program. If a patient, medical or mental is destitute
. it is the county's obligation to support him.
The county programs
would obviously present
enough of an administrative tangle but there's*
more— much more.        .
The local Department of
Social Services, which in
Clare County occupies the
major portion of one end
of the county building, administers about 580 total
cases of some .form of
assistance.
He puts the number of
county cases at aboutl20
which is divided 80 for
direct relief and some 30
cases in the child welfare division, The other
400 plus other cases come
under the state programs.
Some 100 families are
receiving, Aid to Dependent   Children   funds in
Clare County while about
155 of our elderly citizens receive old-age benefits. There are some
90 persons who receive
Disability assistance but
only two people receive
Assistance for the Blind
in Clare county.
An imposing list, to
say  the  least  but  there
is still more. According
to Redmond the Department of Social Services
takes on a new dimension in a rural county
such as Clare. He points
out, "here, we are the only
social agency of any kind
for many miles. Countless are the people who
come in our office for
plain old-fashioned advice. We are not only
money-givers. People
need marital advice and
child help and we do our
best to supply it. I get
easily 20 calls a day and
many are concerned with
the. e social problems."
Redmond employs 11
people to help him' ride
over his million dollar
baby. The clerical staff
which handles secretarial
work as well "as bookkeeping numbers four.
The casework supervisor
coordinates the activities
of the five caseworkers
on the staff in an attempt
to use them to their maximum potential, even
though the number of
cases force them to minimize their individual
help.
One of the caseworkers,
is assigned completely to
what. Redmond terms intake. She spends all her
time : "> the office and interview ^ all applicants for
assistant.. She is the applicant's ii -st welfare encounter ana determines
the kind of help needed
and the eligibility of the
applicant for assistance.
The "homemaker"
rounds out the Social Services staff and she is a
relatively new addition to
the Clare department. She
is even newer in the welfare concept as Clare
county was the third county in the state to hire a
homemaker when she did
so in January of 1968.
Redmond said about 16
coi .ties have adopted the
concept  since that time.
T ti e "Homemaker"
works with the hard-core
welfare recipients of the
county in exactly the capacity her title indicates.
She Works with the family
in money management,
housekeeping and cooking.
Redmond says, "the
homemaker's case load is
purposely kept light so
she can spend a lot of
time with each case. She
'•visits some families as
many as 4 times a week
and can spend as much as
four hours at a time with
a confused wife and mother. She saves us much
more money than she
costs by increasing the
family's chance to make
it."
The ' 'homemaker's"
role is consistent with
Redmond's policy of getting the welfare recipient
to a self-help state. A
further attempt to reach
that goal -is underway
right now as Redmond'
has issued an appeal to all'
county residents to become welfare volunteers."
The volunteer program
will work much like the
homemaker program as
volunteer families will
spend time with welfare families to lend them
advice or help in any way
possible. Redmond hopes
for 13 volunteer families
by July 1.
The county welfare program is a vast administrative task but the picture becomes even
clearer when one examines the requirements
of the several individual
programs which is what
we   will   do   next week.
_!