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· PEORIA COUNTY recently received a Regional Safe Schools Grant in the amount of $231,940.
The grant will be used to support alternative schools for disruptive youth who have been removed from regular schools because of their behavior.
In coordination with local school superintendents and Peoria School District 150, all county school districts will send eligible students to an alternative school in Peoria.
(For more information, contact Michelle Riggio Repaal, public information officer for Peoria County, at 309/672-6052.)
· JEFFERSON COUNTY recently received a $625,000 grant from the U.S. Department of Justice to create a plan to improve police response to domestic violence.
A Domestic Violence Response Team, made up of officers, advocates, probation officers and sheriff's deputies will target repeat offenders, investigate cases, prepare cases for trial and monitor perpetrators.
A sheriff's deputy will be stationed in David District, an area with a high rate of domestic violence. Protective orders and warrants will be issued directly from there to reduce the barriers victims experience in obtaining legal protection.
Also, a computer will be installed to immediately access information about a perpetrator's criminal history; a probation officer will be hired to work with the courts and ensure convicted offenders comply with probation; and a centralized visitation center, located within the Hall of Justice, will be established to provide victims with a safe place to transfer children during visitation. The University of Louisville will evaluate the success of the program.
(For more information, contact Kathy Buskill at 502/574-6442.)
· A report by the PRINCE GEORGE'S COUNTY Department of Environmental Resources recently was accepted by the National Conference Watershed '96 and published by the group. The name of the report is "Stormwater Pollutant Presentation in Urban Watersheds: Action Plans for Industrial Participation."
(For more information, contact the department's Programs and Planning Division at 301/883-5822.)
· TULSA, GARFIELD, GARVIN and MUSKOGEE counties are part of a new pilot child abuse prevention program called Children First that began Jan. 1. The program is voluntary for new parents. Services begin prenatally and continue through the age of two.
The program is designed to improve the health and social functioning of low-income, first-time mothers and their babies.
Findings from trials involving similar populations in Elmira, N.Y. and Shelby County, Tenn. show significant reductions in cigarette smoking and hypertensive disorders among pregnant women and child abuse in at-risk famlies; fewer second pregnancies among low-income, unmarried women; significant increases in rates of labor force participation by the first child's fourth birthday; and a 30-month reduction in welfare support for low-income, unmarried women by the first child's 15th birthday.
"It's kind of a common sense program," said Gary Cox, director, Tulsa City-County Health Department. "I think it's going to make a world of difference." The county has hired seven new nurses and hopes to add six more in July.
The state legislature appropriated $1.1 million for six months of funding and is expected to appropriate more funds this session.
(For more information, contact Gary Cox, director, Tulsa City County Health Department; phone: 918/595-4361, or the Prevention Research Center for Family and Child Health, 303 E. 17th Ave., Suite 200, Denver, CO 80203; phone: 303/861-1715.)
·FAIRFAX COUNTY will host the 1998 World Congress on Information Technology scheduled for June 1998.
More than 1,200 information technology executives from around the world are expected. Fairfax County was chosen from among several international locations to host this event, which is described as the "world's fair" of the technology industry.
Registration is available online on the World Congress' home page at http://www.worldcongress1998.org.
(For more information, call: 703/790-0304; fax: 703/893-1269; or e-mail: Jim Poisant, executive director of the World Congress, at poisant@aol.com.)
· PIERCE COUNTY has won a Computerworld Smithsonian Award for its Legal Information Network Exchange or LINX. The award is given each year to outstanding work aided by computer technology.
The system links criminal and civil court records for the prosecuting attorney's office, district court, superior court, assigned counsel and the sheriff's department. LINX began May 2, 1994.
(For more information, contact Larry Gezelius of Information Services by e-mail at: pcinfosvcs; or call: 206/591-7476.)
· More than half a million dollars has been saved since MILWAUKEE COUNTY started its Milwaukee County Fraud Hotline three years ago.
This is how it works: County employees and private citizens call the hotline to suggest better ways of handling public business or to report violations of rules. Callers are not required to identify themselves.
A total of 51 hotline cases were opened during 1996, involving allegations of employee misconduct, operational inefficiences, wasted resources, and complaints regarding county vendors and contractors.
(For more information on the program, contact Jerome Heer, director of audits, or Doug Jenkins, deputy director of audits, at 414/223-1895.)
(News From the Nation's Counties is compiled by Mary Ann Barton, senior staff writer.)
Does your county have news it would like to share? Mail it to County
News, 440 First St., NW, Washington, DC 20001 or contact Barton at 202/942-4210
or mbarton@naco.org.