The following is excerpted from testimony before County Council this week.
<lst>"The Board acknowledges the very difficult budgetary environment we find ourselves in, and we accept that spending must be reduced. However, the recommended cuts in the Recreation Department's budget seem to us excessive and seriously out of proportion to the recommended spending levels for other essential public services.
"Recreation is not a luxury. It is a basic public service and a fundamental component of our quality of life… It plays a critical role in child development and in the knitting together of our increasingly diverse families and communities.
"The Board believes that reductions in spending should never compromise safety, the value and integrity of previous investments or fundamental equality of access and opportunity among our residents …
"We believe that the needs of our children deserve to be given precedence over all others, and that what happens to kids after schools and on weekends and during the summer is just as important to their development as what happens in school."
<1b>—Peter Hauslohner, chair
Western Area Recreation Advisory Board, Potomac
<lst>"Construction of Imagination Stage in Bethesda started on Monday, March 5.
"Our poster depicts our somewhat tortuous path over the past four years. You will see that our materials have declared that we would be opening in the years 2000, 2001, 2002, — and finally — 'soon.'
"We come to you today with a simple request; help us finish the work that we (the public and private sector working together) started several years ago."
<1b>Robert Brewer, president, Board of Trustees
Bonnie Fogel, founder and executive director
BAPA's Imagination Stage
<lst>"If the proposed budget is enacted, personnel cuts will interfere with program operation, critical maintenance of facilities will again be delayed, and a recover period will again be required in the future. As noted during the FY02 budget testimony, the additional budget decreases projected for the Recreation Department in 03 and beyond, will insure elimination of certain programs, services and facility maintenance, and will stretch already thin man- and woman-power resources beyond their capacity.
"From FY01 to FY03, the number of full- and part-time career positions in the Rec. Department has been reduced from 183 to 156 or a decrease of nearly 15 percent. The immediate results of this loss in personnel cause or contribute to the reduction in operating hours at least four neighborhood centers, including Clara Barton and Scotland, and all Community Centers."
<1b>—Dick Pelroy, vice chairman
County-Wide Recreation Advisory Board
<lst>"The county's vision in creating the Early Childhood Initiative sent a strong message that the early years are important years in the life of a child. The Commission strongly supports continuation of the programs and projects established through the Early Childhood Initiative in FY02. We are concerned that the Department of Health and Human Services is in a transition period with re-organization and pending changes in agency leadership and want to make sure that the Early Childhood Initiative remains a top priority for the county."
<1b>Elizabeth Molloy, chair
Commission on Child Care
<lst>"This year's budget will require the department to reduce 68 areas which include reducing operating hours at recreation centers, closing centers for an additional week, elimination of programs for youth, [people with] disabilities and seniors and creating major cutbacks in programs offered during the summer. Maintenance in the proposed budget will be severely curtailed to the point that safety will become an issue as the year goes on. In addition, so many budgeted positions remain frozen as to create extreme stress on the remaining staff."
<1b>—Bob Monsheimer
County-Wide Recreation Advisory Board
<lst>"I'm here this year again to discuss an important contributor to the quality of life in Montgomery County. No, it isn't the Montrose Parkway, it's the library.
"We were so fearful of such drastic cuts in the library budget, that the actual cuts in Mr. [Doug] Duncan's proposed budget, painful as they are, don't seem so bad.
"More than 400,000 county residents used their library cards last year and many others made use of library resources. … It is important that we not reduce the material resources which are so important for the school age children.
"Cutting almost a million dollars from the materials budget will have a huge negative impact not just this year, but cumulatively over the next several years. If there is any way to restore any portion of those funds, it will be an investment that will pay dividends for more than the next fiscal year."
<1b>—Dan Hartinger, chair
Davis Library Advisory Committee
<lst>"A significant number of children's mental health problems are preventable. Even the disabling effects of childhood depression, treated early, can be diminished. The most cost-effective and successful way to serve children is in their schools and homes. School mental health should be a budget priority.
"The Council should work with the Board of Education to dedicate an additional $450,000 to the school budget to fund a total of six new school psychologists and social worker positions …
"Ignoring these necessary identified positions will confound existing problems."
<1b>—Kevin Dwyer, chair
Blue Ribbon Task Force on Mental Health
<lst>"Our four priority areas this year are access to the public mental healthy system, affordable alternative housing options for adults with mental illnesses, coordinated school-based mental health services and juvenile justice system reform."
—John Metz
Mental Health Administration
<lst>"The Montgomery Exception Leaders (MEL) program, which is a part of Montgomery County Public Schools and supported by The Arc of Montgomery County has been in existence since 1987.
“As students, they have taken positive action with respect to their individual disabilities by going to other schools and community events to talk about their disability and learn from others in the program. They teach one another and model one another. An 0.5 coordinator and a stipend for the MEL Chapter Schools support this program. Unfortunately, it has been cut from the MCPS budget.”
<1b>—Elizabeth Roth
Arc of Montgomery County Education Committee
Montgomery County Chapter of the Autism Society
<lst>"I was in the MEL program for five years. I don't want you to cut the program because it helps children and adults learn about people with disabilities. It also helped me become a leader and helped me to speak up for myself. It made me believe in myself.
“I moved into my own apartment last August. I have a blue belt in karate. I work three different jobs, including Blockbuster. When I first started in MEL, I was quiet and would not even wear a name tag.
“I know that you want other students like me to have a chance to know what it feels like to be a good leader and a good citizen. Please keep MEL alive."
<1b>Erin Coyne, Silver Spring
<lst>"Transit Advisory Group members have developed a list of top priorities for this year that they would like to see the county consider to improve transit usage. The top three priorities are: increasing marketing activities for Ride On so both potential and current customers know of new programs and existing services; improving reliability of buses through technological means and scheduling adjustments; improving security on buses and in areas where passengers are waiting for buses."
<1b>—James Howard
Transit Advisory Group
<lst>"Founded in 1958 by concerned parents, The Arc of Montgomery County now serves more than 4,000 individuals and families annually through its day care, preschool, respite, residential, vocational programs [for people with developmental disabilities] and family support programs.
"Our biggest priority is adequate funding for our programs. The executive's recommended budget for FY 03 again did not include the $1.7 million that was provided to cover the loss of Federal Medicaid funds when the state declined to run the county's DD supplement dollars through the Medicaid program.
"We urge you to restore the $1.7 million cut, so that we can establish our FY 03 budget with some degree of confidence."
<1b>—Roger Marcotte
Arc of Montgomery County, board of directors
<lst>"Since Sept. 11, 2001, our whole society has begun to think in terms of us and them…
"The Founding Fathers… valued knowledge, information, the free flow of ideas. They came up with a durable form of government that has kept us safe and secure for a couple of hundred years. Knowledge is power.
"The Founders were book people. They knew libraries. They owned libraries. Thomas Jefferson's library became the core around which the Library of Congress was formed.
"Education, books and libraries were instrumental in developing our society, in sustaining it as a democracy … Libraries may even save the world someday when we are better at sharing knowledge with others. Maybe someday, when we are successful enough, there won't even be a 'them.'"
<1b>—Paulette Dickerson
Silver Spring
<lst>"Founded in 1999, Great Strides' mission is: to offer a therapeutic healing environment for individuals experiencing emotional or behavioral difficulties, utilizing the powerful connection between humans and horses, enriching the lives of clients, horses and staff. We offer equine-assisted psychotherapy services. Through specially designed interactive experiences that promote emotional healing, we build confidence, improve social skills and help clients make positive changes in their lives. Our farm environment provides an unique setting enabling clients to address treatment issues on many different experiential levels that they might not ordinarily access in a therapist's office. We are seeking $20,000 in operating funds for the coming year."
<1b>—Brad Lewis
Great Strides Therapeutic Riding, Inc.
<lst>"We support the Department and county executive Duncan's proposal to fund $28,000 for the purchase of Braille labels for taxicabs. These labels, which are in compliance with the Americans with Disabilities Act standards, will be posted in all 580 of the county's licensed cabs.”
<1b>—Elizabeth Ellis
Taxicab Services Advisory Committee