The Farmville herald. (Farmville, Va.) 1957-current, 1957-06-25
Letters To Editor
Use Sheriff To Clean Up Beer Joints,
Not Check Welfare Cases, Reader Ask

Of family dies and they are eli
gible for Social Security Benefits |
the same will apply to O.A.A. as
more and more workers are Gov
cred before they reach S., but at
present a great number of old
people never workd under the
Social Security Program and must
depend upon O.AA The totally and
permanently Disabled. which is one
of our most expensive programs.
cannot collect Social Security until
they are so years of age
Criticism Unjustified
These are only few Of the many
reasons why money has to be spent
on Public Assistance and should be
Of more concern to a Board Of Sup
ervisors than is now indicated, by
the fact that the Welfare program
bears the brunt of any thought OF
economy and seems to be the only
agency criticized for being extrava-
CANT The Welfare Boards and Sup
erintendents should be given credit
for being Just as interested in saw
ing tax money as are the Boards OF
Supervisors. but it should be re-
membered that they have no magic
formula for providing for the needs
OF welfare clients without spending
money
The annual Welfare Budget is set
up to show just what the Welfare
Board feels will be needed for each
category. for year ahead, and the
Board Of Supervisors is given an OPP
portunity to see just how the money
they appropriate will be spent This
amount from necessity cannot be
accurate to penny because we
deal mostly with the unpredictable
| However. TIL ere is no deficient
spending as in some other agencies
The Govrnor has decided that the
amount asked for one category
must be spent for that category.
regardless Of the fact that we might
have greater need in some other
category before the fiscal year ends
All unspent balances in local money
must revert back to the County
general fund at the end Of each fis-
cal year and is not re-allocated to
/, the Welfare fund
/ The Boards Of Supervisors should
realize that the Welfare Depart
ments are an important though
unpopular County agency and give
more consideration to the actual
needs before appropriating some ar
i bitrary amount which is usually
based upon what they have left over
after taking care of all their other
requests They should consider that
/ the cost Of living has gone up for
/ the Welfare Client as well as other
people and he is given no special
consideration when buying food
clothing. paying for rent and medi-
cal care and II possible, the mem
bers Of the board should try To
imagine themselves living for a
whole month On the $25 average
grant The Welfare Board and Sup
porting five or six children on an
/ average Aid to Dependent Children
grant The Welfare cards and Sup
erintendents also deplore the fact
that the cost of the program to the
Counties is going UP. but this is
beyond their control.
i The Welfare organization has no
I political importance which is prob
ably one Of the reasons they are all
ways made the whipping boy
when the local governing bodies feel
that II is time to divert public at
tention to rising taxes. After all
some of the children who are helped
would otherwise be unable to attend
the fine schools. and take advantage
OF the services Of our highly trained
teachers which is provided for all
children because they would not
have clothes to wear and food to
keep them mentally alert.
1 And think what it would do to a
child to know that the Board Of
4 Supervisors had sent out the Sheriff
70 investigate the reason his mother
was on relief.
believe the Sheriff could be
/ better occupied cleaning up the
beer joints" dance halls and other
places which furnish the Welfare
/ Departments with some Of their
worst problems and cause h e
spending of some of the closely
guarded an always inadequate local
funds.
| | consider this an indictment of
the Governing bodies and the COM
| munity as a whole who only see
the negative side of the Welfare
program, which is given wide pub
licity, and close their eyes to the
work out their own problems These
problems should be of vital concern
to every organization and citizen Of
the County,