Local briefs
Classes offered Intermediate Unit 1 is offering GED preparation classes and adult basic education classes throughout the summer in the Fayette County CareerLink, located on Iowa Street in Uniontown, and at the Adult Learning Center, located at 23 Connellsville St. in Uniontown.
Free classes at the Adult Learning Center are available Monday through Friday from 8:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m., and classes at the CareerLink are available Monday through Friday from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. Both programs offer flexible scheduling and individualized instruction. Additionally, the newly created computer lab at the Adult Learning Center offers additional methods of instruction.
Applications for the GED exam are being accepted for the July test date at the Adult Learning Center. For more information on the programs, call 724-437-9816.
Dedication service today
The Connellsville Veterans Commission will conduct a dedication service for the Greenridge Cemetery Veterans Circle on Friday beginning at 3 p.m.
The Rev. Marvin Watson and the New Haven Bagpipers will participate in the service. Keynote speaker will be Robert Hixson, director of the Fayette County Veterans Affairs office.
All families with veterans interred at the cemetery are invited to take part in the ceremony.
A group representing local universities and human service agencies is working to find a solution for proposed cutbacks in services that soon could affect 26,000 Fayette County residents.
Group to meet
The group, the Fayette Human Service Council Research and Professional Development Committee, will meet today from 1 to 3 p.m. at the Penn State Fayette Corporate Training Center. The public is invited.
At a recent meeting, the group discussed how to determine the effect of cutbacks as well as how to use that information to obtain grant applications to deal with shortfalls. A tentative budget approved by Gov. Ed Rendell could drop county funding for programs from $760,633 to $50,000.
Since an October 2002 conference about poverty issues, the committee has worked to find ways to deal with cutbacks. The group consists of representatives from Penn State Fayette, California University, and Indiana University and representatives from 20 local agencies.
Committee member John Rapano said the committee has expressed serious concerns about programs that will be eliminated July 1 if the budget is approved as is. Services that will be affected by the cutbacks include transportation and in-home services to adults with disabilities or on dialysis, employment, child care, health care, education, homeless services and access to information about services.
Local Penn State University students and committee members recently developed a survey geared toward low-income families with one or more parents working.
Rapano said that discussions showed that their needs are the same as the basic needs of all Fayette County citizens, but they are at a disadvantage because of inadequate income and lack of important benefits such as health care. The survey will be distributed at sites in the county, and the participants will be followed up with in a year to see how they have been affected by the funding cutbacks.
The public is invited to become involved in this initiative. For more information, call Rapano at Penn State Fayette at 724-430-4286.