- ' • • i . _ ' i Herald - Lantern Dispatch 26 March '86 —

Welfare: $17-Million Narcotic?

(From page 1) Welfare's largest component today, AFDC, started in 1960, Schellinger said, with 110 county clients. It quickly increased to 700-800 families, then climbed slowly to the current average of 1,000 to/1,100 families. Multiply that by 2.3 to get the number of individuals. Schellinger said. The program is paid by the federal-state-county in a 50-37.5-12.6 percent ratio. NINETY PERCENT of AFDC recipients are mothers and their children. The typical client, according to Schellinger. is a white female in her mid-30s with two children. She is divorced or separated, has an Uth-grade education, rents an apartment. is jobless, "and probably will get off welfare to take a minimum wage job paying $124 a week or $536 a month. On welfare, she received $404 a month plus food stamps and Medicaid. Weather can affect the AFDC rolls. Storms can keep fishermen off the ocean; rain can keep construction workers off their jobs. Then the support payments lag and mothers get desperate. "They would rather get off welfare and work," said Schellinger. "No question. People who apply dort't have any intention of staying any longer than absolutely necessary." He said studies elsewhere found a fivemonth average welfare stay, excluding certain long-time recipients. But the county has never done a study "PEOPLE ARE BASICALLY proud," said Schellinger "They have dignity. Being identified with welfare doesn't add to anybody's dignity. It's pretty demeaning to have to apply for welfare, to be identified by the postman. You are in most people's mind something less than a full citizen. Fingers start pointing toward you and your family as being less than an upstanding citizen." To qualify for welfare, one fills out a 14-page application that ascertains every source of income and permits no assets totaling more than $1,000. A home is exempt, but everything else from a Christmas Club to the cash value of a paid-up life insurance policy counts. One also must assign his child support rights to the county Welfare Board. MOST AFDC RECIPIENTS also qualify for Medicaid, which pays for almost any medical bill; doctor, dentist, hospital, home health care, etc. The money comes from the federal and state governments on a 50-50 basis. The county Welfare Department determines eligibility, but 'payments go direct from the feds. to the vendor. "Medicaid is^the biggest deterrent to leaving welfare." said Schellinger. "particularly if they have a sick child. If there was some way to extend these benefits while they were working, until they were eligible for benefits on the job, they would be more inclined to get a job and go off welfare." The food stamp program. 100 percent federal, requires the same 14-page application "plus two." said Schellinger "It's ridiculou^" THE FOOD-STAMP program also has one person assigned to "job search." trying to find work for all recipients aged 18 to 60. The applicant must contact 12 employers in two months each year. The maximum monthly allowable gross income for a one-member household is $569; for three. $959. The maximum coupon allotment is $go for the onemember household. $211 for three. The number of households receiving food stamps is about 1,500 in the summer and 2,000 in February and March, when unemployment runs out. The monthly amount runs from about $150,000 in September to $250,000 in March. Last year's total; $2.4 million. About half of food stamp recipients are AFDC cases; most of the remainder are senior citizens, Schellinger said. It is a Department of Agriculture program "so people will eat better." he added. "There's less stigma than welfare." OTHER WELFARE programs in Uie county: • Home Energy Assistance. 100 percent federal, gave $1 million, all federal dollars, 3,802 households last year. January was the big month with payments totaling $430,635 • General Assistance (75 percent state. 25 percent local municipality) primarily goes to single individuals or married couples without children. The maximum monthly payment to one person is $200. "Maybe a few collect in late February or March when their unemployment runs out." suggested Schellinger. Most municipalities administer the program

0 1 'A v w f ' RALPH SCHELLINGER k themselves, but the county does it for Ocean City, which has 30-40 cases, and Cape May Point and Stone Harbor, which have none he said. • A program for the homeless. 100 percent state-paid, which spent $29,000 last year. IN ADDITION TO all this is the county 20-member Social Services section, spending about $230,000 a year in mostly federal funds to purchase services for the needy. Programs run the gamut from nutrition care for young mothers to homemaker services to senior citizens. "It's what keeps our county going," said Schellinger. providing child care, medical transportation, homemaker service, helping distribute surplus food. etc. "Our biggest thing is providing guidance in problem solving to help people meet their own needs." said Marvin Morrell, administrative supervisor of Social Services. He estimated 60-65 percent of the programs are aimed at the elderlv. SCHELLINGER RETURNED four weeks ago from a Public Welfare Administrator conference in Washington. They were told, he said, to expect a" Reagan program to require "an AFDC job search" within a year. It would be for "employables, mothers with children over six." "We had a committee on employment • at the conference)." he said, "and sat around a table with 50 people. They tried to elicit reasons for funding work programs No one said anything favorable "I've heard for a long time there aren't jobs out there." he said, "but the unemployment rate is dropping and it still has no remarkable effect on our statistics. "I'm skeptical about spending a lot of money to find jobs." he said. "They have to be full-time, year-round jobs, and we have to have affordable day care. If we organize it, it will cost $50 a week or more We can't afford for government to provide for day care for children. NINE COUNTIES in the state have WIN (the Work Incentive program)." said Schellinger. "For all the efforts they've put forth, providing child care, they raised the number Molding jobs by about 5 percent. It's not>;ost beneficial to spend all that money with such poor results." Schellinger was asked his biggest problem. "To Jocate employers on a year-round basis." he said. "We want to restore normalcy. Normalcy is the family with an employed adult." "How did you get your job?" he asked rhetorically.

/• Rehab Channels NORTH CAPE MAY - Lower Township Council last week authorized Township Manager James Stump to apply for a $350,000 Department of Community Affairs grant to rehabilitate 70 apartments in the 140-unit Channels Apartment complex here. If approved, Channel owner Elliot Jacobs would match the grant. The complex is 70 percent low- and moderate-income families and therefore qualified for the grant, Stump said. The state program requires that health, safety and structural repairs must be made first.

Panel Votes Gun Law Reform

WASHINGTON. D C. - The House Judiciary Committee March 11 voted 35-0 in favor of legislation to reform the nation's firearms laws for the first time in nearly 20 years. Congressman Bill Hughes (D-NJ), chairman of the Crime Subcommittee which drafted the bill, said he was extremely pleased by the unanimous vote on the legislation. "For the better part or a year, the CWme' Subcommittee has sought to develop consensus legislation which addresses the concerns of the nation's sportsmen and hunters, but without crippling law enforcement." Hughes said. "Today, that consensus has clearly been achieved. THE LEGISLATION adopted by the Judiciary Committee strengthens law enforcement in a number of key areas. At the same time, it provides 1 relief to the nation's sporti smen and hunters from regulations which have no law enforcement benefits." he said. Hughes said he is hopeful that the legislation — known as the Federal Firearms Law Reform Act — will be considered and approved by the full House i shortly. Hughes said the legislation will provide a wide range of benefits to sportsmen, law enforcement and gun dealers. A summary of those benefits follows: FOR SPORTSMEN: — permits interstate sale of rifles and shotguns if made face to face between buyer and seller and complies with laws of both states. — assures the rights of ' individuals to travel in and between states with a secured, unloaded, not readily accessible rifle or shotgun for the purpose of participating in legal sporting activities or for changing one's residence; — eliminates recor dkeeping in the sale of ammunition in quantities of less than 1,000 rounds except for armor-piercing ammunition.

FOR LAW enforcement: — provides an important new weapon against narcotics traffickers by mandating a five-year prison term for persons who use or carry a firearm in relation to a drug trafficking crime; — provides a mandatory 10-year prison term for using a machine gun to commit a violent crime or drug trafficking offense, and a 20-year term for any subsequent offense; — bans the future sale of silencers and silencer kits; ' — provides foi notification of law enforcement authorities of a handgun purchase to permit a check of records of criminal conviction or other disqualification. — controls all parts designed or intended to be used for converting weapons into machine guns. — makes it a crime for any person to transfer a firearm to another person knowing or having reasonable cause to believe that tlje other person is unqualified: — bans the importation of key components of ''Saturday Night Specials". TO GUN dealers: — requires proof of a

knowing state of mind for felony violations of the 1968 Gun Control Act ; — reduces recordkeeping offenses to a misdemeanor; — permits sales at gun shows by qualified dealers ; — limits informal ioiv required on license applications to information necessary to determine eligibility for licensing.

Poster Contest COURT HOUSE - In observance of National Tourism Week. May 18-24 the county Chamber of Commerce is sponsoring a poster contest . County school students are being requested to depict his or her favorite tourist attraction or event Three posters will be chosen from each school to be displayed prominently in a local business' w indow throughout Tourism Week Committee member Yetta Smith of Ocean City is chairing the poster contest

1 > M Wmfi -4* W AL ALBERTS DAY — Upper Township Mayor Daniel Bevel, left, presents proclamation to Al Alberts, right, while Alberts' wife, Stella, looks on, at recent luncheon in Strathmere of Make Believe Ballroom 'Bandstand Club". Alberts'. live in. North Cape May. He is host of 'Al Alberts Showcase* on WPVI-TV Channel 6.

College Questionnaire Probes Adults

(From page l) are interested in taking courses themselves, for cultural enhancement, enrichment, second careers." It was pointed out that community colleges normally offer classes free to senior citizens (55 and over) on a "spaceavailable basis." Evans said the averge age of community college students in the state is 29. although "the recent high school graduate is the base enrollment." AFTER EVANS said he was not considering the county as a potential operator of its own college, because it lacks a statepreferred 100,000 minimum population. Rowe asked if he were ruling out "a future community college." "Absolutely not," said Evans. County planners have predicted the county will top 100,000 persons sometime this year. Evans said his study is on schedule and he will have his report by June 15. An early May meeting was tentatively scheduled for an interim report. ALTHOUGH the committee has had attendance problems, last week's session had one of its best turnouts with 10 members present. Several suggested it was the vo-tech breakfast — juice, scrambled eggs, bacon, hash browns, pastry and coffee — that did it. Committee members present included Kilpatrick, Kissler. Rowe, Bongart, Ruth Millward, Carol Bruno, Gene DeGenova,

William Lauer, George Bailey and Arthur Motz. Also present were Norman Zimmerman. vo-tech 's director of Curriculum and Instruction, and Madelyn Beloin. clerkstenographer at the Board of Freeholders who is serving as committee secretary •

'Great Adventure'... (From page l) ' out-of-county colleges rather than the „ county Economic Development or Plann ing departments. Wade said. "We felt the county wouldn't have funds for a strong impact." "North Jersey received a sports complex. Camden our aquarium, Atlantic City casinos and Cherry Hill a new convention center while Cape May County waits in the . wings, satisfied with the bones that are tossed." the report said. It urged the chamber to "independently take the first step." Wade said his committee includes B;#r bara Tomalino of Paramount Air Service in Erma. Jack Aprill. owner. Learnings Run Botanical Gardens, Swainton; Fred Benson, publisher. Sentinel- Ledger. Ocean City; l.arry Boyer, publisher. Gazette- •*" Leader, North Wildwood; Dennis Curley, general manager. Golden Inn, Avalon; and Yetta Smith, director of sales, Port-O-Call Hotel and Motor Inn. Ocean City.