The Times from Streator, Illinois • 3

J. THE TIMES-PRESS. STREATOR. ILL. Thur9y January 6.

1994 3 Area State No major snow gets around Illinois The heaviest snow missed the area, but a few inches should be oiLthe ground before the day 'high' marks by HUD ends. mm mafamW" -mm mm mmmW Jmu mwm' mmmw Mi mm mmwmt 8.51 for "contract administration." A lower score was given when an unapproved manager signed a paper two years ago 7 for "unit turnaround." HALC takes 25 to 30 days to get a room ready from the time residents leave an apartment to when the next rentors moves in. HUD prefers a 15-day turnaround. Jurkas said this point with 98.7 percent of their 897 homes filled. Occupancy has usually hovered around that level for years Five of those empty apartments which totals to 12 are in the 75-home D.

Ravlin Congregate Center, Ottawa, for the elderly. There are 548 families and people with low incomes waiting for a home, but those who want to live in the center often make too much money. The yearly income maximums range from $13,250 for one person to $18,950 for a family of four, said Diana Graham, HALC director of management. Other scores below a perfect OTTAWA For the fifth straight year, the Housing Authority for La Salle County scored high on its annual report card. Though HALC officials felt the score should be even higher, they were given a 91.96 out of 100 by the federal Department of Housing and Urban Development.

How that compares to other housing authorities will not be known for a few months, but last year the Authority's 92.95 score ranked eighth of 86 in the state. One of the few problems noted by HUD was the Authority's vacancy -ate. HUD would like all rooms to filled an ideal that HALC Director Stanley Twait says is about impossible. But the HALC is pretty close at Snow could continue throughout the day, said Kevin Darmofal of the National Weather Service. "We weren't originally planning for it to happen that way," he said.

"But it looks like right now the weather pattern is changing a little bit and we could see periodic snow like the burst of snow this morning and maybe a couple more bursts into the afternoon." Chiropractic group agrees to settlement WASHINGTON (AP) The McLean County Chiropractors Association has agreed to settle Federal Trade Commission charges it had engaged in a price-fixing conspiracy, the agency said. The association's 13 members set and periodically voted to raise (he maximum fees its members AP Photo Koehler announces 8.5 for "Energy Consumption Jurkas hopes a push to change the way this category is scored succeeds. The rating is based on cost of utility bills, not the amount of energy used. HALC paid 2.8 per cent more the last fiscal year than the year before. Judy Koehler of Lacon announces her campaign for the Republican nomination for the 18th congressional seat.

With her is her daughter; Julie, Area counties get $750,000 in grants could charge patients and in By Jeanette Lach THE TIMES-PRESS munity Services Block Grant program. Families at or below 125 percent of the federal poverty level are eligible to utilize programs at their respective agencies. A single person with a maximum yearly income of $6,970 or a family of four with a maximum yearly income of $14,350 is eligible. People can get assistance on, medication, rent deposits, food, and transportation for medical visits and, job interviews at the Mid-Central Community Action. Agency, for instance.

Tazwood Community Services Inc. also offers several programs to its 1,300 to 1,400 clients yearly with these funds, said Executive Director Cindy Bergstrand. fl Eligible residents of Tazewell and Woodford counties can par ticipate in the agency's Footwear Program administered with Payless Shoe stores. Each member of an eligible family can get one pair of shoes valued up to $15 for free, said Bergstrand. Or they can participate in the agency's MedicalDental program that offers $300 worth of medical visits.

The agency's Prescription Program offers up to $300 worth of prescriptions per year for clients, and people with a medical need can receive air-conditioning services through the summer Cooling Program. "Elderly people on Social Security usually qualify for all of the programs," Bergstrand said. "Poverty cuts through communities, both large and small. This program enables the state: to work with regional Community Action Agencies, attacking poverty by providing food, shelter, and medicine to the poor and disadvantaged. It also helps fund longer-term programs to help low-income people gain the skills, knowledge and motivation to reach self-sufficiency," Gov.

Edgar said. According to federal law, at least 90 percent of Community Services Block Grant Program funds must be allocated to Community Action Agencies. Illinois provides 90 percent of these funds to the state's network of 36 Community Action Agencies, using a formula based on poverty populations in each region to determine funding levels. In addition, each Community Action Agency is required to commit 10 percent of these annual block grant allocations to programs designed to help low-income people obtain the skills and jobs that can help them break out of poverty. One such key effort is the Community Services Block Grant Loan Program, which provides long-term, fixed-rate financing to new or expanding Illinois businesses through a combination of conventional capital and low-interest funding.

The loans, administered by the local Community Action Agencies, provide employment opportunities to Community Services Block Grant-eligible clients. For each $10,000 received, loan recipients must create and fill one job with an eligible client. Since 1983, 621 companies that received these Block Grant loans have created or retained 4,134 jobs. Three area community action agencies will receive more than $750,000 from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services to help alleviate poverty in their counties.

TriCounty Opportunities, which operates in La Salle, Marshall and seven other counties, receives $397,693 this year; Mid-Central Community Action agency, serving Livingston and McLean counties, receives and Taz-wood Community Services serving Woodford and Tazewell counties, will have $164,441 for 1994. Illinois has been awarded $17.7 million through the federal Com Wetlands program available for flooded Illinois farmers Talks aim to avert cutoff of special education funds surers, the FTC said in a complaint. The FTC detailed the settlement after voting 5-0 to accept the proposed consent agreement for public comment. After 60 days, the commission will decide whether to make the proposed Settlement binding, the FTC said Wednesday in a statement. Clark Bridge opens on U.S.

67 at Alton WEST ALTON, Mo. (AP) -The $90 million, four-lane Clark Bridge has opened on U.S. 67, replacing the narrow bridge that was considered one of the worst on a major U.S. highway. Two governors, Mel Carnahan of Missouri and Jim Edgar of Illinois, were on hand Wednesday for the opening of the new bridge that connects West Alton and Alton, 111.

Construction of the long bridge over the Mississippi River began in the spring of 1990. In addition to four driving lanes, the bridge has bicycle paths marked in the outside 10-foot shoulders. Man stabbed to death at party GRANITE CITY (AP) A dispute over a ride home from a party ended in the stabbing death of a 24-year-old man in this Southern Illinois community, authorities said. 1 John D. Heuer, of Granite City, died at 2:15 p.m.

Wednesday at St. Louis University Hospital from a single stab wound to the head, authorities said. "It was a petty argument," said Assistant Police Chief Dave, Ruebhausen. "It was over a ride home." Police had a man in custody in the stabbing, but charges had not been filed as of Wednesday. Store donates profits in voluntary tax WEST PEORIA (AP) The owner of Haddad's Super Market says he sees opportunity, not hardship, in voluntarily handing over money to support his community's government.

Fred Haddad is taxing his business by pledging 1 percent of his store's sales in January to the fledging city of West Peoria. "We've been in business over here since 1963, and West Peoria has provided our family with a good living for 30-some years," Haddad said. "We see an opportunity to help pay back some of those funds to West Peoria." West Peoria Mayor Bryant DeFrance said the money will help the city get organized. feet after the devastating flood of 1993." The program pays farmers to take wetlands out of production so they can be preserved, protected and restored. It was last funded in the 1992 fiscal year, with a limit of 50,000 acres.

Landowners on 2,337 farms sought enrollment of more than 462,000 acres. In Illinois, about 884,000 acres of cropland was flooded in 1993, and crop damage topped $400 million in the state, Durbin said. Illinois lost an estimated 10 percent of its million acres of wetlands, he said. Interested landowners should contact their local Agricultural Stabilization and Conservation Service office for more information. WASHINGTON (AP) An expanded wetlands program will help, Illinois farmers inundated by summer flooding.

Illinois is one of 11 new states eligible for the Wetlands Reserve Program, the Agriculture Department announced Wednesday. The $66.7 million in funding will help enroll as many as 75,000 acres this year. The program protects and restores habitat for migratory birds and other wildlife, helps purify water supplies and helps absorb flood waters. Rep. Dick Durbin, D-Springfield, called Illinois' addition to the program "good news for Illinois farmers who are still struggling to get back on their cited by Mines had been ruled ineligible by 'the state for future placement of disabled children even before December.

"I don't think any of this withholding of money is going to happen as long as we're trying to fix the problem," she said. Lauri Sanders, a spokeswoman for the Chicago Board of Education, would not discuss the federal findings or negotiations. "We are aware of the prooiem, and we're doing what we can to turn things around," she said. At a Capitol news conference, a statewide coalition of groups urged the State Board of Education to keep more disabled children out of substandard private schools. "It hasn't even been tried to 1 educate them in the schools they'd attend with their brothers, sisters, neighbors and friends," said Sharon Freagon, a spokeswoman for the Coalition on School Inclusion.

"They are automatically placed in these private schools." SPRINGFIELD, 111. (AP) A federal official says there has been progress in talks with state and Chicago school officials to avert the cutoiff of more than $10 million in special education funds. But no details about those negotiations were being released Wednesday. The U.S. Education Department's Civil Rights Office last month warned that the Chicago public school system has improperly placed disabled children in substandard private schools.

The agency investigated nine schools and found inadequate staffing and deplorable conditions. Children with mental disabilities were fojced to use toilets publicly in the classroom and were sometimes improperly restrained by being tied to poles, for example. It also found the methods used by the State Board of Education to approve private day schools helped deny an appropriate education for the students. In Dec. 3 letters to the state and Chicago officials, the federal government gave them two months to take remedial action or face the suspension of federal Kenneth Mines, regional director of the Civil Rights Office, said local and state officials must show they plan to take action to comply with federal disabilities laws.

"The bottom line is for getting services delivered to these disabled students as soon as possible," Mines said in a telephone interview. Among the actions the state board needs to take, he said, is requiring 100 percent of the staff in private schools to be certified or have training in child care fields, Under current state law, public schools already face that requirement, but only 25 percent of the staff at private schools must be certified. Kim Knauer, a spokeswoman for the State Board of Education, said three of the nine private schools AFTER CHRISTMAS SALE cjiAwnvuy, for information please call ml il LLLLk mmM an MMHI I lH3fl iw. tm Tmmf Wxm TIMES-PRESS BY THE TIMES-PRESS PUBLISHING COMPANY 115 Oak St. Streator, III.

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