new
Social agencies
fear funding cut
By LYNN JOHNSON
The Chapel Hill Board of Aldermen and the
Orange County Commissioners are currently
embroiled in a budget dispute over the funding of
social services.
For several years Chapel Hill has funded the
following service agencies: The Council on Aging,
Alternative Community Counseling and
Educational Service System, Oasis, the Rape
Crisis Center, Volunteers for People, Meals on
Wheels, Women's Health Counseling, the
Coalition for Battered Women and Joint Orange
Chatham Community Action, Inc.
The board is now considering eliminating the
funding of these nine agencies or cutting it
drastically, based on the belief that these human
service agencies can get all their funding from the
county as mostJN.C. agencies do.
The county maintains it has more pressing
needs to contend with than the further funding of
social services and it is not shirking its
responsibility in the matter.
Last year the county and town worked together
through a multi-funding subcommittee to
determine the amount each would dole out to the
agencies. That cooperation was not evident in this
year's operations.
In an interview with The Chapel Hill
Newspaper May 24, county finance director Neal
Evans said the town sent a representative to the
county's budget hearing who observed but did not
particpate.
"The town had told us they were not going to
participate in the hearings," Evans said. "I asked
them at least to send someone so we could know
what their funding was going to look like.
"The critical point, in my opinion, about the
hearings is the. participation of the managers in
determining what their respective boards
participation should be, Evans said. "But the
person they sent was not at the policy-making level
and was not in any position to do managerial types
of discussion.
Since then, the board has set up a task force on
human services funding which made a
recommendation to the board last week. While the
task force did not recommmend doing away with
the funding, it did propose a drastic cut in the
amounts requested by the agencies. Less than half
the money sought by the agencies will be provided
if the Board of Aldermen accepts the proposal.
Proponents of funding and representatives of
the social service agencies again pleaded their case
to the board at a work session Monday night. The
final decision must be made abound the end of
June, with the new fiscal year beginning July I.
Ellen Thompson, a volunteer on the counseling
staff of the Rape Crisis Center, commented on the
proposed budget cut by the board.
"Our counseling services will go on, but rape
victims can't call if we have no phone and we can't
have professionally trained counselors if we don't
have a professionally trained coordinator. Taking
a total budget figure and cutting it by an arbitrary
percentage without considering what programs
and services are involved does not seem to me a
responsible way of proceeding.
She added, "The people who need our services
are being used as pawns in a political game
between the city and the county.
Elderhostel offers participants
opportunities in academics, fun
By ROBERT THOMASON
James Thabet is taking a fairly heavy course
load this summer, three courses as a matter of fact.
He's not getting a bit of credit for them either, at
least not the kind that's tucked away in acomputer
and then forgotten.
He's attending an Elderhostel, a nationwide
program that makes university resources available
to senior citizens during the summer. . . '
Some of the 32 persons who are attending this
week's hostel went to college; some did not finish
high school, while other have Ph.D.s.
The participants registered for the Elderhostel
Sunday at Spencer Residence Hall, where they are
housed. The resident assistant for the hostel, Beth
Barlowe, said the participants are behaving
themselves.
Thabet, 80, is repeating an astronomy course
this summer, not because he failed it, but because
he enjoyed it.
"I'm retired and a widower, Thabet said.'-"!
always said that, one day I would go back to
school, he added. .
UNC is only one of the eight campuses in North
Carolina offering an Elderhostel program this
summer. Many of the people attending the hostel
have attended other hostels before. Sarah Blank
from Goldspring, Texas, has been to hostels in
Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island
and Iowa. After she finishes here, she will go to
another hostel in West Virginia.
" The UNC hostel is being coordinated by Joan
True of the Office of Continuing Education,
Extension Division. The program offers three
courses: Astronomical Perspectives; Health,
Care and the Image of the Person; and Politics and
Ethics. All are taught by UNC faculty members.
Extra curricular activities such as wine and
cheese tasting parties, tours of Ackland Art
Museum and historic Hillsborough are also
scheduled. "The fellowship is great. It's great to be
with people who think the way you do," Blank
said.
All ABC Permits
1511 E. Rosemary
967-4696
All you can drink $2.00
Chapel Hill's original
sidewalk cafe.
Great sandwiches, friendly atmosphere
Afternoon Special 3-5 M-F
Sandwich and all you can drink $3.00
offering a variety of styles by
Danskin
, swim suit stylos
free style
professional line of Jeotndc &nd tights
Jantzen
leotards and tights -
Capezio, Premiere and Bob Kelly Theatrical Makeup
and accessories coming socn.
Also, Dance Emporium T-Shirts at $5.95 will soon be
available.
S
114 henderson st. chape! hill, n.c. 27514 967-1083
N
dune 3mi S Me
Usea, a-ncl v&cc bsot& cf&ll III
at lower tt&.n usual
rids
f
nces.
Th& 0M J?fe
wi -A ost IicStn& - Street ;
Vy vJ j j' J
"
3 CONVENIENT LOCATIONS
IN CHAPEL HILL
o 1722 CHAPEL HILLDURE-
BOULEVARD
750 AIRPORT ROAD
607 WEST MAIN ST.
IN "CARRBQRO -
VISIT OUR IN STORE DELICATESSEN AT
1722 CHAPEL HILLDURHAfJ BLVD.
-jew
1 hunday. June 7. 1979 The Summer Tar Heel 7