ALASKA
Shooing polar bears isn’t a typical county government problem, but NORTH SLOPE BOROUGH is beefing up its round-the-clock patrols to keep a group of about 60 polar bears away from the citizens of Barrow, the state’s northernmost city on the coast of the Arctic Ocean.
Members of the patrol say some bears are hostile, so they’re busy keeping tourists from getting too close, making sure the trail to the congregation of bears is closed, and keeping the bears out of town.
“We give these bears three strikes and they’re out,” Charlie Brower, head of the North Slope Borough’s department of wildlife management, told the Anchorage Daily News.
When the bears stroll into town, the patrols harass them into leaving. If the bears don’t leave, they’re tranquilized and hauled out of town. If they come back again, the patrols are forced to shoot to kill. So far, only one bear has been killed.
Meanwhile, the bears continue feasting on a pile of whale bones about seven or eight miles north of town that were left because ice is too weak this year for whalers to leave the carcasses in a spot where they will float to sea when the ice breaks.
CALIFORNIA
• SAN DIEGO COUNTY, home to one of the world’s finest zoos, is now the proud recipient of the largest share of the latest funding from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s push to buy land in order to protect valuable habitats.
While a full list of grantee counties and their projects can be found at www.fws.gov, San Diego County, in particular, will receive $13.7 million to buy 1,000 acres. The land is home to numerous rare and endangered species, including the Quino checkerspot butterfly, coastal California gnatcatcher, San Diego fairy shrimp and the least Bell’s vireo, a songbird.
The land also features many rare plants such as the coastal sage scrub, willowy monardella and San Diego thornmint, according to the San Diego Union-Tribune.
The USFW announced in late September that it would provide $68 million total to help reduce the conflicts between the conservation of threatened and endangered species and land development and use.
California counties will receive about $25 million, more than one third of the national total. Other recipients in the state include the counties of CONTRA COSTA, KERN, MENDOCINO, PLACER, SAN LUIS OBISPO, SAN MATEO, SANTA CRUZ, SHASTA, SONOMA and YOLO. The grants require a 25 percent match from state or local sources.
• While only 75 percent of the workforce did not report to their duties, nearly everybody seems to have gotten involved in a recent three-day strike that nearly shut down all operations in SANTA CRUZ COUNTY. When the union and county officials agreed on a settlement, about 2,000 employees received word that their economic and living conditions would improve greatly.
As part of the agreement, county laborers will receive better salary parity with Santa Cruz’s eight surrounding counties, benefits for temporary workers and improved benefits for permanent workers, including fully paid health care for employees and 75 percent coverage for spouses and children of county workers.
“I think the cost is reasonable, and it’s something we can afford given our financial circumstances,” Supervisor Jeff Almquist told the Santa Cruz Sentinel.
“[It’s] a contract that both employees and management can be really proud of,” added Supervisor Mardi Wormhoudt. “It honors the people who do county work.”
County employees will also receive an annual 3 to 4 percent cost-of-living increase. Labor leaders claim that workers in other nearby California counties should see improved conditions because of the resolved strike in Santa Cruz County.
MARYLAND
HOWARD COUNTY raffled off nine new townhouses this month, each for less than half of their $240,000 retail price. The raffle was designed for middle-income people who have increasing difficulties maintaining a decent standard of living in Howard County, which is nestled between Baltimore and Washington, D.C.
There were 347 people who applied for the lottery-type drawing. Requirements included living or working in Howard County and having personal debts that don’t exceed 41 percent of income. Of the applicants, 196 qualified for the drawing for the brick-front garage townhouses slated to begin construction next month.
“It’s a war for homes out there,” one qualified applicant told the Baltimore Sun prior to the lottery. “An average home is listed for $165,000 – the sellers are getting $180,000. It puts somebody like me, a teacher and a single parent, in a position where I’m unable to buy.”
The winners will get the townhouses for $118,700 with help from a county law requiring 10 percent of new homes in mixed-use developments be set aside for people with moderate incomes.
MINNESOTA
Dick Lindeman, a 76-year-old volunteer from Minnetonka, will receive an Ageless Hero Award for his work in teaching approximately 60 teens from the HENNEPIN COUNTY Home School how to care for and ride horses.
Lindeman volunteers several days per week at the facility, which is the county’s residential correctional treatment center for juveniles. Through the center’s We Can Ride Program, Lindeman teaches the teens, who, in turn, teach approximately 200 physically and mentally disabled children and adults about how to ride horses for rehabilitation therapy.
Blue Cross Blue Shield of Minnesota and Eldercare Partners recently recognized Lindeman at a special ceremony at the Mall of America.
NEW YORK
The combination of the sluggish economy and increased health-care costs imposed by the state legislature means that many counties throughout New York are proposing steep tax increases or service cuts.
BROOME COUNTY is considering either a 35 percent property tax increase or a 25 percent increase in the sales tax. ERIE COUNTY is planning to cut its workforce by 7 percent and WESTCHESTER COUNTY has a $120 million deficit to cope with.
Healthcare costs account for anywhere from half to all of a county’s property tax revenue and unlike most states, New York requires counties to pay a quarter of Medicaid costs.
This year, the Legislature increased reimbursement rates to raise salaries for healthcare employees and required coverage for poor women with certain cancers.
On average, county health care costs rose 12 percent in 2002. And while, in the long run, some programs will save the counties money by providing insurance for the uninsured, these additional costs come at difficult times.
In CHEMUNG COUNTY, the Medicaid costs are projected to be more than the entire property tax levy next year, and the county has raised the sales tax to 8 percent to pay for the program.
In CHAUTAUGUA COUNTY COUNTY, Mark W. Thomas, county executive, told The New York Times he has had to cut a quarter of the county’s economic development spending and that more and more of the budget is going to medical programs.
“If this keeps up,” Thomas said, “what we will end up being is an insurance company.”
NORTH CAROLINA
• On Oct. 1, the Domestic Violence Advocacy Council of MECKLENBURG COUNTY held the first walk of life march in honor of area women who lost their lives due to domestic violence.
The council includes representatives from several county departments, including police.
Following the initial march, the council will organize a follow-up march every Tuesday following a domestic violence-related murder in the county. The marches are designed to honor the victims, underscore the scale of the problem and galvanize the community in the effort to reduce domestic abuse.
• As the budget belt tightening continues, several counties and cities in North Carolina are taking their battle for more money to court.
ALAMANCE, CABARRUS, CALDWELL and STOKES counties, along with the towns of Garner and Valdese, filed suit in WAKE COUNTY Superior Court to demand their share of $209 million in taxes and reimbursements usually designated for local governments. In February, Gov. Mike Easley seized the reimbursements.
The North Carolina Association of County Commissioners has lobbied for a half-cent local option sales tax this year to make up the difference, but the legislature rejected the idea.
Legislators did attempt to help local governments by affirming that it is unconstitutional for the governor to seize $185 million a year in utility franchise and beer and wine revenue — taxes collected by the state on behalf of local governments.
Although some in the statehouse have warned against filing a lawsuit, several other counties are expected to join the suit.
TEXAS
DALLAS COUNTY commissioners recently voted to contract with the University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston to provide jail health care.
Supporters of the new arrangement say the medical school, which serves 150,000 state inmates, will provide better jail care — physical and mental — at a lower price.
The County Health and Human Services Department currently treats the county’s 7,000 inmates at a cost of about $14 million a year. The medical school should save the county $681,344 in jail health costs in the first year.
Critics of the plan have contended that the medical school has a “dismal” record of providing medical care to prisoners, but the commission pointed out that the medical school has achieved accreditation from the American Correctional Association and the county has not.
“There will be aggressive monitoring,” Commissioner Mike Cantrell told The Dallas Morning News.
The medical school is expected to take over prisoner health care around Nov. 1.
VIRGINIA
Pedestrians crossing one ARLINGTON COUNTY boulevard are being automatically escorted across the street by LED-strobe lights embedded in the pavement.
“This is the first automatic ‘intelligent’ pedestrian crosswalk in the region,” said Chris Zimmerman, chairman of the County Board. “It is state-of-the-art and provides additional safety 24/7 for pedestrians in a high-volume traffic area.”
The lights are activated when a pedestrian enters the crosswalk. Sensors detect the presence of the pedestrian and activate for about 30 seconds, enough time for a pedestrian to get across the street. The lights are visible to motorists approaching the crosswalk during both the day as well as the night hours.
Arlington is evaluating the system, and has funding for two or three more of the crosswalks this year.
“At a cost of $9,800, this new pedestrian crosswalk system is also more economical than the standard pedestrian crossing signals, which can cost up to $70,000 to install,” said Terry Bellamy, chief of the Traffic Engineering Division in Arlington’s Department of Public Works.
