Saturday, August 15, 2009

Hardin County food stamp assistance continues to climb

By Virginia Bandy
Ada Herald Editor

Saturday, August 15, 2009


Bob Norman, Director of Hardin County Job and Family Services, updated the Hardin County Commissioners on Thursday, August 6 on the activities of his agency.

Norman reported that the number of households with food stamp benefits have increased from 978 to 1,278 in just a year. In 2005, the number of households was just 750. The cost of those benefits equals $408,000 which is up from $218,000 last year.

Commissioner Jerry Cross inquired as to the qualifications, which Norman said are income-based, then a formula is used to determine the amount of food stamp benefits.

Norman said the fraud unit is busy investigating cases, and in July, recovered $6,320.50 in funds.

The JFS employees' contract is up for renewal, and stipulates a one percent increase, which equals out to $31,000 or one and a half new employees. The state allocation for the agency has not come in yet, and looking ahead to next year's budget, Norman said that they want to avoid layoffs since the office has already seen a 20 percent cut in staff.

Norman reported that both the agency and the union representative are amenable to negotiations. The allocations are scheduled to arrive by August 17, and then the budget numbers can be looked at again.

Norman said that the allocation could mean the reinstatement of the utility and rent assistance programs. He noted that due to the work of the previous director, C. M. Long, "we are in a lot better shape than other counties."

He did say that even though the state mandates that benefits are received within five days, that his office is running behind due to the reduction in staff. "We're treading water but meeting the demand better than I hoped with our limited staff." Two to three weeks are now the norm to wait for benefits to begin.

Norman noted that "some of our efforts promote employment in the region," including a $40,000 grant that was received to perform job training in partnership with the USV Wind Academy in Alger. County residents who apply for benefits in the JFS office will be screened to see if they would qualify for jobs that the wind academy will create. Their training for that job would then be paid for by the grant.