Lights! Camera! Action!
The Alliance for Community Media/Southeast Region has selected the HILLSBOROUGH COUNTY Volunteers in Public Service cable TV talk show as a 1997 Southern Sunshine Video Festival winner.
The show spotlights the work of some of the county's 15,000 volunteers - who do everything from wash dogs at the county animal shelter to teach gardening to county residents - and is hosted by Mary Lou Tuttle, volunteer coordinator for Hillsborough County.
A new 30-minute program is produced every three months and airs twice a week featuring three volunteers in one-on-one interviews with Tuttle. The program also shows volunteers "doing their thing, so we don't just have talking heads," Tuttle said.
The producer of the program, Steve McClure, began his career as a news photographer for commercial TV news. After a stint in Pinellas County, Fla. he accepted a position in Hillsborough County.
The program is a way to highlight how the county is saving money by using volunteers and is also a way to accent achievements of the volunteers, he said.
Counties that don't have their own studios could use public access channel facilities, he noted.
(For more information, contact Tuttle at 813/272-6216 or McClure at 813/276-2678. To contact the Alliance for Community Media, call 202/393-2650.)
A state Senate-approved bill endorsed by Gov. Terry Branstad that would require convicted drunk drivers to spend at least two days in jail has Iowa counties concerned.
"We're not opposed to penalizing drunk drivers, but those people would all end up in county jails and we'd have to pay for them," said William Peterson, executive director, Iowa State Association of Counties.
Convicted drunk drivers could serve their time in tents or converted buildings, Branstad said. An article in the Des Moines Register also points out that counties could use about $10 million in fee revenue provided in the pending legislation.
But Richard Phillips, Muscatine County attorney and spokesman for the Iowa County Attorneys Association, points out that the $10 million is based on fines and can't be counted on. "Tons of people haven't paid fines ... people in prison are fined huge sums of money and never pay them," he said.
People who "drink and drive ... and people die - we don't give those people breaks" and their sentences are never deferred, he said.
Phillips said Iowa county attorneys "can live with" a state House bill, yet to be voted on, that would eliminate deferred sentences for first-time offenders who have a blood alcohol content of more than .15 percent. The legal limit is .10.
At an April 8 legislative hearing on whether to abolish counties (See County News, 1/20/97, page 3) (http:www.naco.org/archives/index.htm), State Sen. Richard Moore compared counties to "brain-dead patients kept alive only with expensive life support systems."
Moore, whose district includes Worcester and part of Norfolk counties, is vice chair of a Senate committee on counties.
"What's really going on is a grab for power," said Norfolk County Board of Commissioners Chairman William O'Donnell, who testified at the hearing.
"The state, through some legislative moves, has not provided adequate funding to counties, which has led to some of these [budget] crises, and they have to address that," he said.
"These abolitionists ... in the next breath, they say we need regional government. They say after counties are abolished, cities and towns could form regional governments. With what money? County government is regional government. Why reinvent the wheel?"
O'Donnell said he and other county officials will continue to keep an eye on pending legislation.
David Thomas Lesefske, who owes more than $145,000 in child support, had better beware.
ERIE COUNTY has added his name and those of other so-called "deadbeat parents" to a "most wanted" list on its Internet site as a way to get the word out. Lesefske is one of nine parents listed on the site <http://www.erie.gov/parents.htm>, which has been up for a little more than two months.
So far, the Child Support Services Office has received at least two leads on deadbeat parents.
(For more information, contact Frank Gaskill, operations manager, Erie County Office of Child Support Enforcement, at 716/858-7350.)
The woebegone stares of Benson, a cocker spaniel, and Walter, a black Labrador retriever, gaze out at those who access their site on the Internet. They are just two of the animals whose photographs appear in a sort of cyber petshop <http://www.co.fairfax.va.us/ps/ac/homepage.htm> set up on the FAIRFAX COUNTY Web site.
The county began putting photos and descriptions of its shelter animals up two months ago.
People looking to adopt are often overwhelmed by the sheer number of animals to choose from, said David Flagler, director of Fairfax County Animal Control. About 1,500 dogs and about 3,000 cats are up for adoption each year at the shelter. "This way, it's easier to decide," he said.
The shelter captures an image of each animal as it enters the shelter, using a digital camera. The shelter hopes to update the site as quickly as possible, Flagler said.
The shelter celebrated its first adoption through the site in March, when a young man adopted a Labrador Retriever he later named Shep.
(For more information, contact Flagler at 703/830-3680.)
Like any county official, MILWAUKEE COUNTY Supervisor Mark Borkowski doesn't like the idea of raising taxes or cutting services when faced with a tight budget. Unlike many county officials, Borkowski comes up with some pretty interesting ideas for raising revenue.
His latest inspiration? He wants the county to sell ads placed inside the golf holes on each of the 16 county golf courses. Golfers would see the ads when they retrieve golf balls.
"Some people say they don't look in the cup, but I say that's baloney," Borkowski said, noting that the small space is big enough for a company logo such as "some golden arches or a swoosh sign."
He figures the county's 225 golf holes could net about $250,000 per year. "The bottom line is, there are a lot of people sticking their hands in those holes," he said.
(For more information, contact Borkowski at 414/278-4253.)
(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.