Federal Cuts to Community Services Not as Big as Feared

Over the last several weeks, Worth County Community Services Director Mary Jo Fletchall and other Community Services people were worrying that federal cuts to the program could be as big as 50%. But when they were finally announced, it turned that they were being cut by only 2.8% for the rest of the fiscal year, a figure that Executive Director David Bell said that they could live with at the regular regional Community Services board meeting Wednesday night. In addition, Head Start is getting a slight increase in funding instead of the decrease that had been expected. However, Community Services is not out of the woods as the process will start all over again once the current Fiscal Year ends in September. On a less positive note, the Missouri House passed a bill that Bell says would wipe out a lot of stimulus programs, including the Community Services Weatherization Program. That bill still has to go to the Missouri Senate. This would create logistical problems as Bell said that they had already bought the trucks and trailers and hired the people to do the work.

The Federal Community Services Block Grant Monitors came to see how the Federal Stimulus Money was being spent. The Head Start Monitors were there a couple of weeks ago and listed strengths and areas of concern. One of the areas of concern identified was the need to have a federally certified nutrition specialist; board member Julie Tracy suggested possibly having Hy-Vee's dietitian or someone from one of the regional hospitals; the monitors wanted to see direct oversight. There were other places that they could look as well; Nodaway County's health department has a nutritionist on staff while University Extension has nutrition specialists as well. One of the biggest strengths was parent and community involvement in the area. One of the other positives listed was the Meals with Class Program; however, that program was cut due to a lack of funding; Bell said that it had been one of CSI's biggest expenses. He said that there was a possibility of putting it back in but that they would have to wait and see what the federal funding would look like for the next fiscal year.

The next meeting will be set for May 25th at 7 p.m. at the Community Services building behind McDonalds in Maryville.