ALABAMA

• LOWNDES COUNTY joins LAKE COUNTY, Calif., CARTERET COUNTY, N.C. and CHENANGO COUNTY, N.Y. as featured success stories in studies about housing for the rural elderly compiled and recently released by the Housing Assistance Council (HAC). The Washington, D.C.-based nonprofit’s report distinguished these counties for how they helped elderly, low-income rural residents use federal assistance to hold onto their homes. The report also covers how rental housing for the elderly was developed in rural areas.
  
  The report is called Federal Programs and Local Organizations: Meeting the Housing Needs of Rural Seniors. It is available for $5 from HAC or free at HAC’s Web site: www.ruralhome.org.

CALIFORNIA

• SAN FRANCISCO CITY and COUNTY debuted its new emergency communications system last month. The digital communications system makes it possible for emergency services personnel to talk on dedicated communications systems during a specific emergency without cross talk or interruptions, according to published stories.
  
  Reports say the new system encompasses a larger area than the old system, which also had communications dead spots. The system may be versatile enough, officials speculate, to create a 311 nonemergency service.

MARYLAND

• To unravel traffic snarls, some counties and states widen roads, some piggyback freeways, but MONTGOMERY COUNTY is taking a slightly different tack. County officials are looking into a monorail system. A few months ago, the county signed a $76,000 contract with a transportation consulting firm to study the feasibility of monorail technology and to act as mediator with other interested officials in this suburban Washington, D.C. metro area county.
  
  “Our planning staff has suggested that monorail technology should be examined as a suboption for the light-rail options,” said County Council member Michael Subin.
  
  Proponents cite economy of funds and space, minimal environmental disruption, aboveground construction and less land acquisition as attributes. Others say the proposed monorail wouldn’t readily tie into existing transportation systems and doesn’t have a proven track record. Where they do exist in North America, reports said, they don’t travel long distances.
  
  
• It’s being billed as the first “business incubator” in Southern Maryland. The CALVERT COUNTY Board of County Commissioners unanimously approved $49,000 in start-up operating funds last month for the project scheduled to kick off July 1.
  
  The county and the College of Southern Maryland (CSM) will recruit, develop and “graduate” viable companies into the Calvert County Telecommuting Center in Prince Frederick, Md.
  
  Tenant businesses, according to reports, will be charged a cut-rate rent; have access to business and technology counselors and business plan development; and receive investor, financial and marketing advice, among other included services.
  
  “The partnership with CSM is a win-win situation,” said David Hale, commission president. “It reduces the need for significant capital investment while serving the needs of our business community.”
  
  The county and CSM are now involved in soliciting applications from the business community. Then they will select tenants and schedule business and marketing plan reviews to ensure that various business goals are met.

MICHIGAN

• GENESEE COUNTY took the technology plunge this month by offering its residents birth, marriage, death and other vital records online. Instead of a county employee pulling the requested record on microfiche as someone waits in line, the record seeker can now dial up the request and pay for it online. There are 430,000 residents here who can now take advantage of the new system.
  
  
• The state Board of Commissioners of Public Lands is lending a helping hand to BROWN COUNTY and the NFL’s Green Bay Packers by bankrolling renovations at the venerable Lambeau Field. The board is purchasing $75 million in bonds with an additional $30 million, if needed, to help defray costs of the $295 million renovation of the Packers’ home stadium, built in 1958.
  
  According to local press, the infusion of funds will save Brown County shoppers nearly $30 million by ending a 0.5 percent stadium sales tax sooner than expected.
  
  
• LIVINGSTON COUNTY is getting tough on parents who duck court-ordered child support payments. The county is looking to hire a law enforcement officer to track down and arrest deadbeat parents. Local reports say the state is turning to Friend of the Court “bounty hunters” more and more as the number of nonpayment cases rises.

MINNESOTA

• HENNEPIN COUNTY Community Corrections is planning to expand a successful house construction job training program for low-security-risk male offenders by offering it to female inmates this month. The Sentencing-to-Service (STS) Home Program provides on-the-job house construction training with an eight-month apprenticeship. Apprentices learn basic construction skills: math used in building, the use of hand and power tools and the reading of blueprints.
  
  Once the participants complete the course, they rehabilitate properties secured by the Minneapolis Community Development Agency (MCDA). The MCDA then sells the homes to first-time buyers as affordable housing.
  
  “Twenty-two of the 27 men participating during our first year successfully completed the program,” explained Bob Hunter, STS program manager. “None have reoffended; 16 have graduated or were working at the end of the year, and all are now employed in the trades.”
  
  
• RAMSEY COUNTY reported a quadrupling in the number of visitors to its Web page since it began showing digital pictures of the cresting Mississippi River on its home page. The camera, fixed to a fifth floor window in the Ramsey County Government Center West, shows various shots (updated every five minutes) of river-threatened and submerged areas near the government building. If you want to take a look, go to http://www.co.ramsey.mn.us/flood/index.asp#flood.

MISSISSIPPI

• COAHOMA COUNTY is really on the right track. The county announced it acquired 48 miles of railroad line that was headed for possible abandonment by two railroad companies. About 20 miles of track was bought for $700,000 from the Mississippi Delta Railroad and a 28-mile stretch was donated by the Canadian National Railway/Illinois Central Railroad. Both railroad companies said in published reports that they wanted to divest themselves of the railroad lines because they were no longer profitable.
  
  The county will rehab the track using low-interest loans and grants. “We have existing business and then our local tourism industry has been interested in trying to add an excursion train to bring people to the Mississippi Delta,” explained County Administrator Hugh Jack Stubbs.

MISSOURI

• PHELPS COUNTY is the new “mean center of population” for the contiguous United States, according to Census 2000 data. The mean center is defined by the Census Bureau as: “the point at which an imaginary, weightless, rigid and flat surface representation would balance if weights of identical size were placed on it so that each [one] represented the location of one person.” The mean population line has steadily moved west since it first originated in KENT COUNTY, MD. in 1790.

NEVADA

• Two WASHOE COUNTY Social Services Department employees devised a process resulting in an increase of $238,164 in federal Medicaid Targeted Case Management funds. Lynn Granger and Frank Hubbell, Child Protective Services, suggested adding a manual matching step in the established procedure used to determine Medicaid eligibility. Each county employee received $2,000 from the Washoe County Suggestion Program.

NEW JERSEY

• Following last year’s outbreak of West Nile virus, several New Jersey counties and other local governments are hitting developing mosquitoes where they live: in the state’s swamps, marshlands and woods. It’s a massive effort by county mosquito control commissions to use natural bacteriological means and chemical pesticides to kill larvae and adults that may carry the potentially deadly virus found in these parts last summer. Hundreds of dead birds infected with the virus were found last summer, prompting this season’s preemptive strike.

PENNSYLVANIA

• ALLEGHENY COUNTY is now one of several local governments venturing into the brave new world of high-tech by posting pictures, prices and details of some 562,000 properties from its property assessors’ database online. With more than three million “hits” to the Web page, according to published reports, the “visitors” have viewed about 49 million pages of information since December 2000. It is reported that some may not be professionals involved in real estate matters but are simply the curious seeking information on favorite residents, like hockey star Mario Lemieux.
  
  Other local governments with similar databases and services include MIAMI-DADE COUNTY (Fla.), HAMILTON COUNTY (Ohio) and FAIRFAX COUNTY, Va., according to published stories.

VIRGINIA

• FAIRFAX COUNTY and the county executive’s office sponsored a “Take Our Children to Work Day,” but it wasn’t the typical me-and-my-shadow event. Display booth personnel explained what certain county employees do in their jobs, guided tours of county departments and agencies were conducted, and there were many other activities, including an up-close-and-personal look at a police helicopter.

WEST VIRGINIA

• BERKELEY COUNTY law enforcement officers are cracking down on residents with out-of-state license plates. The officers will be cruising by apartments, housing developments and school parking lots to hand out tickets and warnings to those who haven’t transferred their licenses and registrations.
  
  Loss of revenue from vehicle registration has been a cause for concern here because of the county’s proximity to tri-state jurisdictions in Maryland, Virginia and Pennsylvania, according to published stories.

(News from the Nation’s Counties was compiled by Terry Michael King, senior writer. If you have any news, please e-mail to cnews@naco.org.)