Wednesday, Feb. 5

 

State looking at reopening part of LDC

[FEB. 5, 2003]  According to reports from several sources, state officials are looking at reopening a section of the Lincoln Developmental Center to house up to 40 residents.

"We have heard that Governor Blagojevich is considering opening up 40 beds in one of the buildings and bringing back some residents," state Sen. Larry Bomke, R-Springfield, told the Lincoln Daily News on Tuesday. He said officials are considering the move because of overcrowding at other state facilities.

Bomke, who supported keeping LDC open last year when former Gov. George Ryan and the Department of Human Services succeeded in closing it, said he had been in touch with Gov. Blagojevich's office, asking the new governor to meet with him and other officials to talk about reopening LDC. The other state officials who represent Logan County, Sen. Bill Brady of Bloomington and state Reps. Bill Mitchell of Forsythe and Rich Brauer of Petersburg, also supported keeping LDC operating.

 

Bomke said he had not yet met with the new governor but applauded him for considering keeping his promise to reopen LDC. "It is refreshing to have the new governor live up to his campaign commitment," Bomke said.

"These buildings are in pristine condition," he added. "It makes much more sense to reopen them rather than build new facilities."

Bomke said he had heard that it was going to cost $2 million to reopen a building to house 40 residents, and he thought that figure was too high. He said he had been in touch with former state Sen. Robert Madigan of Lincoln, and Madigan was going to talk to people "more familiar with this type of thing and get a more realistic cost."

Madigan, who was recently appointed legislative liaison for the Lincoln/Logan Chamber of Commerce, also confirmed that the new governor had sent a team to Lincoln to look at reopening a building.

 

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"On behalf of the chamber of commerce, we're encouraged by the fact that the new administration is looking at reopening LDC," he said.

However, Reginald Marsh, spokesman for the Department of Human Services, which oversees the state-operated facilities for the developmentally disabled, said his office does not know of any plans to reopen part of LDC.

"We have not been approached by the governor's office yet, but that may change," he said. Gov. Blagojevich has appointed a new director for DHS, Carol J. Adams of Chicago. She will replace present director Linda Renee Baker on Feb. 18, Marsh said.

Members of the local chapter of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, who represent most of the former LDC employees, said they, too, have heard that other state facilities are now overcrowded. When Gov. Ryan closed LDC, some of LDC's 375 residents went into community homes, but many more were transferred to other large state facilities.

Local 425 president Don Todd said he has also talked to at least half a dozen parents who want their loved ones to come back to LDC. The LDC parents' association was one of the strongest supporters of keeping the facility open.

Todd said he would estimate that if 40 residents return, the facility would need roughly 100 employees. Former LDC employees who are still without work would be the first to be called back.

There are about 200 former LDC employees in the area who are unemployed or underemployed, AFSCME officials said, and many would be happy for the chance to come back to work for LDC.

[Joan Crabb]


Former LDC employees
may have new hope

[FEB. 5, 2003]  On Aug. 31, 2002, the unthinkable happened. Lincoln Developmental Center, the county's biggest employer, shut its doors -- forever, according to then-Gov. George Ryan and the Department of Human Services.

On that date, the last 435 workers who belonged to the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees said goodbye to their workplace. They had already said goodbye, often tearfully, to the residents they had served for so many years.

The previous April, 32 AFSCME employees had been laid off, bringing the number to 467 who no longer had jobs working for LDC.

So where are they now?

Two of these former employees, Kim Dennison and Charles Sanders, are working at the union office in Keokuk Village on Chicago Street. They have been hired by the Illinois AFL-CIO as peer outreach counselors to help unemployed union members look for jobs, deal with insurance and retirement technicalities, sign up for unemployment compensation, and offer whatever other assistance they can. With the help of former Local 425 president Don Todd and consultant Dan Senters, Dennison and Sanders have compiled some numbers.

 


[Photos by Joan Crabb]
[Peer counselor Kim Dennison, center, pulls up job listings on the computer to help former LDC employees Kim Morris, left, and Bob Benedict.]

About 110 of the 467 former AFSCME workers have retired, some taking the early retirement option that was offered by the state of Illinois until Dec. 31 last year.

Of the 357 left, at least 53 got jobs with the state -- some in other state-operated facilities for the developmentally disabled; some in other capacities with DHS, which operates all the state facilities for the developmentally disabled; and some with different state agencies. The closest state-operated facility is in Jacksonville, and a few have taken jobs there; others, like Carl Twente, have had to move from the area. Twente took a job at Choate, in the town of Anna in southern Illinois.

Of the 250 former employees left, Dennison and Sanders said they know of 34 who got full-time jobs working for employers other than the state and another 20 who later got other jobs with the state.

That leaves approximately 250 still unemployed. Dennison said at least 31 of those are enrolled in one of two training programs to help them qualify for other jobs. One program is the Workforce Investment Act, better known as WIA, a federal program that helps train people for jobs such as licensed practical nurse, medical assistant and computer technologist. WIA pays up to $3,000 for tuition, books, day care and other expenses. The other option is Upward Mobility, a state program that helps pay for college classes that count toward approved degrees in fields such as psychology, nursing, counseling and human development.

 

There are still about 219 former LDC employees who haven't found suitable jobs, and most of them have been in the union office at one time or another, Sanders said. He estimates that one-third of them have low-paying jobs, often part time, working in nursing homes, retail sales and food service, including fast-food restaurants. Many are working in Community Integrated Living Arrangements, the group homes for the developmentally disabled located in the area, but these CILAs, besides paying lower wages, almost never offer the health insurance and retirement benefits that LDC provided its employees.

For example, one former LDC employee, who was at the lowest level as a technician at LDC, made $11 an hour there and had benefits. She went to work in a CILA, where she started at $7.65 an hour. She is now making $8.25 an hour but still has no benefits, including no health insurance for herself or her child.

 

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Health insurance is a major reason the search for a new job is becoming crucial for many former LDC workers. State workers get a six-month extension of their health coverage when they are laid off. Those few laid off in April who didn't get other state jobs have already seen their health benefits disappear, but many more were laid off in August, and their benefits will run out at the end of February.

Former state employees do have the option of keeping insurance for another 18 months, if they can afford it. This program, the Combined Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act, or COBRA, allows state workers who have been laid off to buy insurance that covers pre-existing conditions. Most of the health insurance they could buy otherwise would exclude coverage for a health problem a family member already has.

COBRA, however, is expensive. Sanders said the cost for a family of four would run about $580 a month and for just one person, more than $300.

For a few former LDC workers, those let go in April, unemployment compensation will also run out soon, the end of January or later, depending on how much vacation or sick time the employee had left when he or she was laid off. These workers got the regular 26 weeks of benefits, plus the 13-week extension granted by President George Bush, for a total of 39 weeks of unemployment compensation. Those let go in August, who also got a 13-week extension, may be collecting unemployment until June or perhaps later.

Because of the extension of unemployment and the continued health benefits, former employees say the Lincoln community has not yet felt the full impact of LDC's closure.

"It hasn't been six months since most of us were laid off," says Diane Sizemore, a former employee who is still job hunting. "Soon everybody will run out of health insurance. Some will also run out of unemployment benefits or are in low-paying jobs."

 


[Charles Sanders, peer counselor, works with Diane Sizemore looking for job listings.]

Sanders agrees that the worst is yet to come. "Unemployment is enough to keep some people afloat, but when they can only get jobs paying $7 a hour, that's not going to be enough," he said. He already knows of three former employees who are in the process of losing their homes.

"Expect to see more people lose their homes if they go to the doctor and run up a huge medical bill, or if something happens to their car," said Kim Morris, another former employee.

Kim and Diane, along with many others, are still searching for jobs that can give them some of the security, not to mention the satisfaction and the feeling of helping others, that they found at LDC.

A ray of hope that some of these unemployed workers might be able to return surfaced this week when an area television station aired the news that Gov. Rod Blagojevich had sent a team to LDC to look at the possibility of reopening a section to house 40 residents. No definite plans have yet been announced, but local AFSCME members and political leaders are heartened by the news. Todd said the former workers who are still unemployed would be the first to be rehired.

[Joan Crabb]

[Click here to read "Job search becoming crucial
for many LDC workers."]

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