Newspapers / Winston-Salem Chronicle (Winston-Salem, N.C.) / Jan. 12, 1989, edition 1 / Page 2
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Commissioners, health board still at odds By TONYA V. SMITH Chfonlete Staff Writer Both the county Board of Com missioners and members of the Forsyth- Stokes Area Mental Health Authority board agree' that before a group home is opened, community members and commissioners should be notified. The two groups disagree ~^about what to do after both parties have been notified, especially when public sentiment is overwhelmingly against the home. Since the controversial opening of the Willie M. group home at 401 Hearthstde Drive, the commissioners and the mental health board have been at odds. One commissioner, F6rcest E. Conrad, has even threat ened to try to cut the authority's^ud gets and oust board members. . In their meeting Monday night, the commissioners studied a prelimi nary policy on group home site selection and public notification pre pared by members of the mental health G^&rd. The policy outlines the rights of clients to community-based services, the need for group homes and proce dures for site selection, community notification and final site approval. After an option for selected property has been signed, "immedi ate neighbors (within at least one block of the site) will be notified through home to home visits/' according to the policy. "Fliers about the home and other relevant infor mation will^be distributed to these and other neighbors and to neighbor hood groups and churches." In addition* the commissioners, city Board of Aldermen and other public officials would be notified, said Jean Irvin, a mental health board member who helped draw up the proposal. County Manager Graham W. Pervier suggested the board change the policy to include: early notifica tion of commissioners in the group home site selection process; defini tions of responsibilities of people involved in site selection; establish ment of site guidelines; guarantee to hear public response to selection," Conrad suggested that the com missioners push for legislation giv ing them power to review and approve mental health budgets. Whereas the mental health board has no legal obligation to noti fy commissioners of a potential group home site, the board wants to do so if it will foster the working relationship between the two groups, Irvin said. "It's the wish of the Mental Health Authority to work with the commissioners in anyway we can. We have no problem with notifying them/' she said. Irvin would not say a push for legislation was groundless, but she did say any move towards legislation should not be made in light of the , controversy surrounding the Hearth side Willie M. home. 'That is a legitimate issue for people to look at but I'd have to see what specific legislation was pro posed," Irvin said. Not advocating giving the Board of Commissioners veto . > * v* power, Irvin said she did not oppose some system of checks and balances. "I always think that in commu nity organizations, in the business of using public money for the provision of services, it's creative to use a sys tem of checks and balances," Irvin said. "As it relates specifically to group homes, I don't think it's an issue of place only. There are other issues that the Mental Health Authority deals with." ? "I just think there needs to be somewhere for perhaps people who don't agree with the board to go," said Mary Lauffer, another board member. "I do believe there should be something else besides the board." ' Lauffer said the commissioners should have veto power over the board's decisions ^^xtreme cases of public disapproval of a particular group home site. They should have some type of veto power in extreme cases, M Lauffer said. Nevertheless, there will always be negative public sentiment when discussion ftrises about a group home planning to locate in a com munity, Irvin said. "Originally when the Willie M. class was identified in the state it was assumed by everyone that these are children that are out of control," Irvin said. "The fact is that these kids had already been in our com munity for years. They didn't just pop up out of nowhere. . The issue is that some commu nities get upset when something out- . ' side of the parameters of what they feel comfortable with is introduced to their' community. I do firmly believe that neighborhood diversity within a community can only be positive." Ebenezer Baptist pastor speaks about Dr. King in Atlanta ATLANTA (AP) - The Rev. Joseph -L. Roberts told the first ser vice of "King Week, '89" that the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.'s teach ings were likfi still waters nwniring the flock. "Martin was like spring water," the Ebenezer Baptist Church pastor said during an ecumenical service marking the 60th anniversary of King's birth. "We had but to stoop down and drink and live. ~ "His kind of love challenges us to take some . ;ks we are not taking. Dr. King's preaching will not leave us in peace," said the man who now heads the Atlanta church where King once was co-pastor with his father. Meanwhile, the Rev. Joseph Low ?ry, president of die Southern Clirts Leadership Conference, which King founded, told a German con gregation the world's churches must help keep alive King's dream of world peace and racial equality. Lowery spoke to about 300 wor shipers at the Church of St. Mary in East Berlin, quoting the black poet Langston Hughes, who "called upon us to hold fast to dreams, for when dreams die, life is like a broken bird and cannot fly." NAACP demands N.C. observances of King holiday CHARLOTTE (AP) - NAACP officials say they've "thrown down the gauntlet" in North Carolina cities this year, demanding a paid day off on Jan. 16 for municipal employees to celebrate Martin Luther King Jr.'s birthday. Dennis Schatzman, executive direc tor of the North Carolina chapter of the NAACP, said his organization is taking a stand on the holiday because "Martin Luther King's birthday is an issue that should not be questioned" "You don't have a better person to fight for than Martin Luther King," Schatzman said. "He is a man whose work was recognized by the Nobel Peace Prize Committee, a man of the magnitude of Mahatma Gandhi." Last week, Lenoir City Council members also praised King. But they told local NAACP leaders the city can't afford another holiday. In Lenoir, as in many other Pied mont cities, officials argue that an additional holiday for employees is simply too expensive. They propose giving employees the option of trad ing another of their holidays for King's birthday. But Schatzman and other North Carolina black leaders say observing the King Holiday is a bellwether of racial attitudes. "Because he (King) was black, peo ple are fighting the holiday," Schatz man old The Charlotte Observer. 'This is not to say that everyone who is against the King holiday is a racist There are some economic concerns. 'But at least half of that is rationaliza tion." Most officials in cities that don't Please see page A3 / ? "We in the church of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ must hold fast to the dream. We have made much progress in my country toward. TaciaT equality, but we~still have a long way to go. In the struggle for racial justice, we will hold fast," said Lowery, an^Atlanta minister. Lowery spoke in the same gothic style sanctuary with 100-foot ceil ings and ornate columns where King preached in 1964, and where the Rev. Ralph David Abernathy spoke in 1971. 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