By DAVID NICHOL
T-H Staff Writer
With possibly more people needing help, the local board of the Emergency Food and Shelter program will have almost $5,000 less to give this year.
"We've been cut $4,977," said Martha Couchman, local chairperson.
This year's total is $19,081.
"This winter is going to be tough," she said.
Couchman added that although it is cold now, it is usually the weather in January and February that causes the largest heating bills, and local citizens have yet to go through that period. Couchman said she is worried that some people may not be able to afford heating their homes.
"It's just not going to get any better," she said. "I don't know what's going to happen."
The local board will meet Tuesday, Dec. 31 at 1 p.m. at the St. Francis County Courthouse.
"It probably will not be a long meeting," Couchman said, "because we don't have much money."
In the meantime, according to a wire story, officials who work with programs providing help in paying heating bills say that proposed cuts in the program at the federal level are coming at a bad time. It is estimated that as many as 10,500 Arkansas households could be cut from the program if the federal cuts are carried out.
The Bush administration has proposed spending $1.4 billion on the Low Income Home Energy Assistance program, compared with $1.7 billion last year. The reduction hasn't been approved by Congress, but officials in Arkansas say charities and agencies are reporting an increase in the number of people asking for help paying their heating bills.
The bugs that kept students home from school and prompted some districts to call off classes before the Christmas holidays -- should have run their course by the time school resumes in January, the state Health Department said Thursday.
While that may be so, locally the bugs are still biting. Calls to doctors' offices showed that the number of children being brought in with colds, sinus problems, sore throats, etc. is holding steady.
The local Health Unit reported that it does not track the numbers of children with colds, although it accepts cultures to test for influenza during the early part of the flu season. "The doctors' offices would be a better source," a spokesperson said.
Statewide, experts were quoted in an Associated Press story saying that even if the current bugs run their course during the holidays, that doesn't mean something else won't come along, with three months of cold and flu season still left.
Dr. David Bourne, coordinator of the Health Department's northwest region, was quoted as saying there are about 100 different viruses that cause the common cold. Some are more severe than others.
''But I suspect all those kids will be fine, when school comes back they should be over it.''
Dr. Dileetkumar Vyas, an attending physician at Arkansas Children's Hospital, said the emergency room still had a flow of patients Thursday with flu-like symptoms.
''We are still seeing the same type of patients, with a nonspecific virus, but the general trend is down,'' Vyas said. ''Two weeks ago, the daily ER census was about 160 patients, now it's about 120 patients.''
Vyas said when students return to school, another wave of viruses could occur.
''It's hard to say, it's holiday time and people have left town. When students return to class they could start to exchange viruses again -- there could be another outbreak,'' Vyas said. ''But for now it looks like it's going down.''
Geraldine Massey, a registered nurse at Delta Memorial Hospital in Dumas, said she had seen many children between the ages of 6 months and 10 years, during the past few weeks.
''It's been steady, something is definitely going around,'' Massey said. ''But it's typical for this time of year.''
The current wave of infection began about a week after the Thanksgiving holiday.
Some school districts reported that as many as 30 to 40 percent of students and faculty were absent due to illness. As a result, districts closed from one day to one week early for the holidays.
Students were sent home with symptoms that include high fever, stomach pains, body aches, chills, sore throat, coughing and headaches.
Bourne said closing schools when students get sick is technically not the best the way to prevent the spread of illness.
''From an infection control standpoint, keeping them home is not good in terms of preventing the spread of the virus,'' Bourne said.