Dennis Lanane: Legislators to speak at meeting

July 04, 2009 07:40 pm

— Indiana Legislators are scheduled to speak at the Triad meeting at 10:30 a.m. on July 16 at the Anderson Public Library.
Senator Tim Lanane and Indiana State Representatives Terri Austin, Scott Reske and Jack Lutz have been invited to participate in a discussion of this year’s issues. Local school funding, property taxes, the FSSA Welfare Privatization mess and other issues that affect Madison County will be on the agenda.
Legislators displeased
The headline on the front page of The Herald Bulletin on July 1 was, “Local legislators not pleased with the budget.”
The Indiana General Assembly had finally passed the 2009 Indiana budget. Four of our local state legislators all voiced displeasure with certain elements of the bill. They were Senator Tim Lanane and State Representatives Terri Austin, Scott Reske and Jack Lutz. Three of the four voted against the bill.
One area of concern was that Elwood and Anderson Community school districts would have cuts of almost $5 million while Hamilton County schools would have an increase in funding of more than $12 million. Sen. Lanane quoted these figures.
Austin, Reske and Lutz voiced their concerns about the millions of dollars the Capital Improvement Board (CIB) in Indianapolis received. The CIB operates Conseco, Lucas Stadium and the Indianapolis Convention Center.
Austin said the amount the CIB got was $750 million over several years while Hoosier Park would not get any help at all. Hoosier Park is very important to the economy of Madison County.
This should be a very interesting meeting. There will be a question and answer segment after the legislators make their opening remarks. Triad meetings are open to the public.
RSVP Volunteers
We have a serious problem in Madison County concerning volunteers of the Retired Senior Volunteer Program (RSVP).
The Anderson Public Library Board of Directors approved on and voted on the recommendation to relinquish the sponsorship of this federally-funded grant program due to the library’s budget shortfalls.
This sponsorship termination has caused total confusion among the hundreds of RSVP volunteers that worked at the hospitals, Paramount Theater, Anderson Police Department, the Madison County Historical Society, etc.
These volunteers have been left without any leadership. Under the termination guidelines termination of the RSVP sponsorship, all staff positions were automatically terminated.
The Indiana state director of the Corporation for National and Community Service has stated that when a county is placed in an interim sponsorship situation that the program may lose many volunteers.
We sincerely hope and encourage those volunteers to keep doing what they are doing and stay in touch with each other. I hope that this frustrating situation will be quickly addressed and another sponsor will be found before we lose very many of our dedicated volunteers that perform so many worthwhile tasks for so many organizations.
Currently, the interim sponsor is the America Red Cross of Greater Indianapolis. Yes, you read that correctly. Triad has several volunteers that belong to RSVP and we do not even have a contact number. This is truly a mess.
Dennis Lanane is chairman of Madison County Triad. His column appears the first Sunday of each month. He can be reached at qparadigm@iquest.net.

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