NEWS

Tennessee Governor Phil Bredessen and members of the Hamilton County and Chattanooga legislative delegation today announced more than $11.9 million in parks and recreation grants will be awarded to recipients across Tennessee. The announcement includes nearly $9.7 million in Local Parks and Recreation Fund grants and more than $2.2 million in Recreational Trails Program grants.

Hamilton County will receive a $250,000 LPRF grant and a $76,000 RTP grant for Enterprise South Nature Park for site work and construction of a visitor’s center, along with trail construction and equipment. The city of Chattanooga will receive $225,000 for the development of a “spraypark” at Warner Park. Additionally, the town of Lookout Mountain will receive $150,000 for playground equipment and installation, surfacing and site preparation for the Mountain Maze Playground.

“These grants will enhance and expand special places like parks, greenways and recreational facilities that are set aside for the enjoyment of our state’s citizens and visitors alike,” said Bredesen. “I’m extremely pleased that this year’s grant awards will allow us to help make 87 important projects a reality across the state of Tennessee.”

The Local Parks and Recreation Fund Grant Program was established by the General Assembly in 1991 to provide local governments with funds to purchase land for parks, natural areas, greenways and recreational facilities. The funds may also be used for development of trails and projects in parks, natural areas and greenways. All LPRF grants require a 50 percent match by the recipient. Funding for the LPRF program has been generated by the real estate transfer tax.

The Recreation Trails Program is a federally funded program established to distribute funding for motorized, non-motorized and diverse recreation trail projects. The funds are available to state, federal and local government agencies as well as private organizations that partner with government agencies. RTP funds may be used for maintenance, construction, acquisition, development and rehabilitation of trails or trailside facilities. The maximum federal share for each project is 80 percent, so all RTP grant recipients must provide a 20 percent match.

“These awards will help fund some very exciting projects,” said Fyke. “>From the acquisition of property for the development of new municipal parks to the renovation of recreational facilities to make them ADA compliant to the construction of new athletic fields and walking trails, these projects run the gamut of recreational opportunities for Tennesseans and will be great assets to their communities.”

“I’m pleased these grants will help improve the quality of our parks in Nashville and across the state,” said State Senator Andy Berke.

“Our quality of life in Tennessee is directly linked to the quality of our parks and outdoor spaces,” said State Representative Tommie Brown.

Grant recipients were selected through a scoring process with careful consideration given to the projects that met the selection criteria and expressed the greatest local recreation need.

Soure: http://www.newschannel9.com/news/grants_970906___article.html/million_parks.html

A study by the Community Research Council (CRC) has found that roughly 25% of every incoming kindergarten class in public and private schools are at risk of not being ready for school.

At a press conference at the Children’s Home, the study’s authors and members of a 19-member advisory board were joined by Sen. Andy Berke (Hamilton County, Marion County), County Commission Education Chairman Warren Mackey and Chattanooga City Council Chairman Linda Bennett who pledged to work together to address the study’s findings.

“Every child in our county – and in our state – deserves an excellent education. As we provide those children most at risk with the help they need, we must ensure that we are investing dollars as effectively as possible,” said Sen. Berke, a member of the Senate Education Committee who helped commission the study.

We can improve the performance of our public schools in Hamilton County by focusing hard on helping at risk children overcome the obstacles that they face,” said Commissioner Mackey.“While some suggest that the City is out of the education business, this report highlights the important role of the city’s Head Start and child care programs in helping young children better prepare for early grade success,” said Councilmember Bennett.

They pledged to work together with the Advisory Board and CRC to improve coordination between the state, county and city.

The CRC study found that, out of approximately 20,000 children under five years old living in Hamilton County:

- According to the 2006 American Community Survey (ACS), 20.5% of children under five lived in poverty – up from 18.9% in the 2000 Census. For a household of three, the poverty threshold in 2007 was $16,537.
- CRC’s analysis of Health Department data found that for children born between 2004 and 2006, nearly 30% of mothers reported annual household incomes less than $10,000 and 37% reported less than $15,000 in annual household income.
- Hamilton County birth data indicate that between 2001 and 2006, 25% of children born in the county had a mother with less than a high school education.
- According to 2006 ACS data, 29% of children under five live in households with just one parent.
- According to 2000 Census data, one in ten children under five were living in a home where English was not the primary spoken language: with the increase in the Latino population in the county, this percentage is now likely to be higher – in 2006, Latino mothers accounted for nearly 12% of all births in Hamilton County.
- According to 2000 Census data, 6.7% of children between the ages of 5 and 15 had one or more disabilities: applying the same proportion to the under five year old population, there are 1,340 children with disabilities

Factors that place certain children at risk translate into performance on early grade tests in public schools based on third grade test scores from 2007:

- Children from economically disadvantaged households are four times more likely to score below proficient on the Reading/Language Arts TCAP and three times more likely to score below proficient on the Math and Social Studies TCAPs than those children not from economically disadvantaged households
- Students with disabilities are three times more likely to score below proficient on the Math TCAP, two and one half times more likely to score below proficient on the Reading/Language Arts and twice as likely to score below proficient on the Social Studies TCAP as those children without disabilities
- Students with limited English proficiency are three to four times more likely to score below proficient on the Reading/Language Arts and Math TCAPs than those students without an LEP issue

To help at risk children prepare for school, federal, state and local governments and private philanthropy spend approximately $30 million annually on child care, Head Start, pre-school, pre-kindergarten and other programs. Still, the study estimates that as many as 13% of at risk children do not participate in these programs.

The CRC study also found that while thousands of children are assessed for developmental progress annually in Hamilton County, there is no standard or mandated single test or measure to identify the number of children entering Hamilton County public schools who are developmentally at risk.

- Individual programs or interventions have different measures of their success: in many cases, these measures are based on compliance – following specific models or regulatory requirements – rather than outcomes – the actual performance of children.
- There is no current effort to link the types of interventions that a child receives before they enter school with how they perform in Kindergarten and other early grades.

At risk children are concentrated in high poverty neighborhoods. Four areas — Ridgedale/Oak Grove/Clifton Hills, Downtown, Bushtown/Highland Park, and Amnicola/East Chattanooga – are among neighborhoods with highest percentages of low birth weight babies, single mothers, mothers without a high school education and mothers who are teens. These are also areas subregion areas with more than 80% Latino and African American newborn babies and poverty rates that exceed 30% — a rate that is two and one-half times the county rate

The report identifies a series of steps that can be taken to address the issue of school readiness:

- Identify those children who are at risk from birth and provide these children with a continuum of services
- Ensure that parents, child care providers, parent educators and teachers of every child work together to provide children with the resources and programs needed to overcome risks to academic achievement
- Identify opportunities for coordination and integration of services to improve service provision and avoid duplication
- Connect the early childhood program providers community with the school system to pass along knowledge and information on each child
- Develop a basic, easy to use instrument – based on best practices elsewhere and consultation with Kindergarten teachers, Pre-Kindergarten teachers and child care providers – that provides assessment information on school readiness for every child entering Hamilton County schools.
- Using the common assessment tool, develop a database that captures this child by child information and can be used to develop school performance based outcome measures for early childhood interventions

The report was authored by Dr. Eileen Robertson Rehberg, Director of Data Analysis/Senior Policy Analyst for the Community Research Council; David Eichenthal, and Shelby Kain. A copy of the full report is attached.

Funding for the report was provided by the Annie E. Casey Foundation and a Community Enhancement Grant from the State of Tennessee, sponsored by Senator Andy Berke.

The Community Research Council (CRC) is a Chattanooga-based nonprofit organization that conducts independent data analysis and policy research to improve the quality of life in the Chattanooga region. In 2006, CRC completed the first ever State of Chattanooga Region Report, the most comprehensive analysis ever of the quality of life in Hamilton County. For more information about CRC and the State of Chattanooga Region Report, visit http://www.researchcouncil.net.

Source: http://www.chattanoogan.com/articles/article_132733.asp

Watch Video

Source:  http://wdef.com/video/national_night_out_2008_teams_neighbors_with_police_to_fight_crime/08/2008

A new report says one in four Hamilton County children is at risk of not being ready to enter kindergarten.

Using 2006 data…the report by the Community Research Council says of the 20,000 children under five in Hamilton County twenty percent live in poverty.

And that 37% of mothers report an annual household income under $15,000.

The report also finds 29 percent of those children live in single parent homes and 25% are born to mothers with less than a high school education.

There are several services available to help these at risk kids.

District 10 Tennessee Sen. Andy Berke says, “This study identifies the different problems that we have out there. So the next step is trying to figure out what do we do from here. How do we make sure that we get the services from these great people to the kids who need them.”

Each year $30 Million is spent on early intervention programs to help at risk kids in Hamilton Country.

Source:  Report Says A Quarter of Hamilton County Kids May Not Be Ready to Enter Kindergarten

Hamilton Countians have just one seriously contested race in the Aug. 7 Republican and Democratic primaries for the Tennessee General Assembly. Most candidates are running unopposed. But an important contest is between incumbent Rep. Jim Cobb and former Rep. Jim Vincent to represent District 31, the north end of Hamilton County and Rhea County.

Voters may choose to vote in either the Democratic or the Republican primary — but not both.

State Sen. Andy Berke is running for reelection in the Democratic primary. He is a fine young man of integrity and intelligence and has no opponent in the Democratic primary. On the Republican primary ballot to oppose him in the November general election are the names of Oscar Brown and Basil Marceaux Sr. Neither of them seems to be mounting a serious challenge.

We believe Sen. Berke deserves preference.

(Hamilton County’s other state senator is Bo Watson. He is a very fine Republican state senator and is in mid-term, so he is not up for re-election this year.)

Rep. Gerald McCormick, a Republican, is unopposed in seeking re-election to represent the 26th District. He has proved himself to be a very outstanding representative, conservative in his views and diligent in his service, thus deserving enthusiastic re-election.

Rep. Richard L. Floyd is a conservative Republican who is running unopposed to continue representing the 27th District. Rep. Floyd is a very fine and conscientious gentleman who works hard and soundly in the state Legislature and deserves strong support.

Rep. Tommie F. Brown is a liberal Democrat who is running unopposed for re-election to represent the 28th District. She is an admirable lady who clearly represents her constituents well.

Rep. JoAnne Favors is a liberal Democrat who is running unopposed to continue her representation of the 29th District. She is intelligent and energetic in reflecting the majority of voters in her district.

Rep. Vince Dean is a conservative Republican in the 30th District, who also has the luxury of being unopposed. He has served well and is a very valuable member of the Hamilton County delegation. He deserves re-election.

And so we come to the 31st District, for Hamilton County and Rhea County. There is no Democratic Party candidate for that district. There are two conservative Republicans running: Rep. Jim Cobb, of Spring City, Rhea County, and former Rep. Jim Vincent, of Soddy-Daisy, Hamilton County.

We respect both of these gentlemen personally. But we believe Jim Vincent can provide stronger, more effective and more desirable representation for the 31st District.

Unfortunately, Hamilton County was handicapped for many years by being shortchanged by millions of dollars a year through the faulty distribution of state school funds under the Basic Education Program. Belatedly, the BEP formula was changed to reduce the loss to Hamilton County schoolchildren and taxpayers.

But Rep. Cobb voted against the BEP improvement for Hamilton County — which created no injustice to Rhea County.

We believe Jim Vincent is better attuned to represent the needs of the whole district.

He is a 61-year-old husband, father of five and grandfather of 12. One of his sons and one grandson live in Rhea County. He is a member of Dallas Bay Baptist Church, a board member of Bethel Bible Village and the local Boy Scouts, and is on the Dean’s Advisory Board of the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga.

Mr. Vincent served well as a Hamilton County commissioner from 1998 to 2000, and as a state representative from 2000 to 2004.

We highly recommend Jim Vincent to return to the Tennessee General Assembly’s House of Representatives by re-nomination in August and election in November.

The legislative delegation for our area is quite diverse, representing diverse constituents well.

We believe that having Mr. Vincent, Sen. Watson, Sen. Berke, Rep. McCormick, Rep. Floyd, Rep. Brown, Rep. Favors and Rep. Dean in the Tennessee Legislature can provide excellent state leadership for our area and all of Tennessee.

Source: http://epaper.timesfreepress.com/Repository/getFiles.asp?Style=OliveXLib:ArticleToMail&Type=text/html&Path=ChatTFPress/2008/07/29&ID=Ar01600&Locale=

I usually don’t point out the sponsors behind the “new laws” featured in this series, but today’s spotlight featured the work of several local lawmakers, including St. Rep’s Gerald McCormick and Jo Anne Favors, along with St. Sen’s Andy Berke and Bo Watson.

It’s a pretty basic law. Basically, if your 16-years old, you can now donate blood with the consent of a parent or guardian. The new law also allows children under the age of 16 to be blood donors when a medical necessity exists within the person’s immediate family. Those younger than 16 also need parental or guardian consent and written consent from their physician.

I mention this today because Blood Assurance put out an alert that they are in critical need of “O-” blood.  The regional blood center currently has less than one day’s supply of “O-” negative blood.  Those with “O-” are asked to donate at the downtown Blood assurance office or one of the 46 other Blood Assurance facilities in the region.

Source: http://wdef.com/blog/new_law_a_day_16_now_ok_to_donate_blood/07/2008

 Tennessee State Sen. Andy Berke, D-Chattanooga, said that state officials are doing the right things by offering incentives to businesses looking to come to Tennessee, but also warned that the government shouldn’t go overboard.

E-mail Michael Davis at michaeld@timesfreepress.com

Chattanooga Times Free Pres

  EDITOR’S NOTE: Correspondents welcome news tips and comments. Expanded reports by this group of volunteer reporters are available at http://community.timesfreepress.com. If you have information to share, please contact correspondents at least two weeks prior to the desired publication date.

E-mail Jeanne Abbott at jcabbott06@comcast.net

 posted July 10, 2008

State Sen. Andy Berke said Wednesday the top legislative accomplishment this year was legislation affecting long term care and community choices.

Speaking at the monthly meeting of the MidTown Council Chamber, he said the legislation will change health care at no extra cost to taxpayers.

More options will be available as more and more Tennesseans wish to have options other than nursing homes, he said.

Sen. Berke highlighted three areas of this session: Elder Care, Education & the Lottery, and Water Resources. He noted that the state Senate is composed of 16 Republicans, 16 Democrats, and one Independent, “a situation that does not allow for headstrong activity.”

He said from the Education Lottery reserve funds were made available: $90 million for energy efficient schools, and funding for more lottery scholarships.

The speaker said attracting new industry to the state often depends on the educational level of prospective employees and making college a choice for more students remains a priority.

Sen. Berke said he believes Tennessee has the best governor in the country. He said Gov. Phil Bredesen understands the importance of running the state as a business, making budget decisions where recurring expenses are paid with recurring income, and non-recurring expenses are funded with non-recurring dollars, always balancing the benefits provided against the taxes charged.

Sen. Berke spoke of the day he heard that Georgia legislators were planning how to move the state line in order to access water from the Tennessee River. He said he had just been elected in November 2007, and entered his first session in January 2008, and barely a month had passed when he heard of the sudden demands from Georgia.

He said he went to his office and “thought for an hour in order to come up with a smart-alec remark.”

Then he went to the press area and issued a press release that proposed the two states could settle this matter with a football game, but it would be unfair to the state of Georgia. He noted that this remark caused the news wires to light.

He said he instantly had many requests for national interviews, including Brian Williams, and was chastised by the Senate leadership for overstepping the bounds of a freshman senator.

Sen. Berke said he had already learned from dealing with the press that you could say a lot about an issue, but only little punch lines will get published. He said he told this story to underline that water “is our ‘oil’, there will be a revolution in our area in the next 10 years concerning it.”

He said Georgians think it’s not a big deal to ask Tennessee to let them stick a straw in the river to supply their growing needs.

He said Atlanta is arrogant to think that their needs outrank those of people in Tennessee.

Marion County, where the proposed change in the state line would be, was having water shortages while he was campaigning, he noted.

He had already made note of the problem as he drove past signs saying “No Water” in 2007.

The speaker said water matters for economic development, for environmental health, and for life choices of Tennessee citizens and that conservation and better land use planning are needed in both states.

When asked what he thought upcoming legislation would cover, Sen. Berke listed education and the environment as always important issues, as well as balancing the budget each year.

The MidTown Council’s new officers were presented at the meeting - President John Bailes of Senior Housing Associates, Vice President Grace Frank of Innovative Realty, Vice President of Programs Velma Wilson of Cleaning Solutions, Vice President of Membership Michael Itson of Advertising Ideas, Secretary Jamie Curtis of Gault & Associates, Inc., Treasurer Melinda Davidson of First Tennessee Bank.

The MidTown Council was formerly known as Eastgate/Ridgeside, and the name change has been invoked to more accurately reflect the area represented which is from Central Avenue to Chickamauga Creek, or the area bounded by zip codes 37411 and 37404.

Meetings are held the second Wednesday of each month at Out of the Blue Cafe & Kites.Chattanoogan.com

By Andy Sher Nashville Bureau

NASHVILLE — Arts organizations in Hamilton County will be getting nearly half a million dollars in one-time grants from the Tennessee Arts Commission, local lawmakers announced Monday.

The Tennessee Arts Commission’s new chairman, Donna Chase, thanked local lawmakers in a statement and noted “these funds have a direct impact on communities across Tennessee, in both urban and rural areas.”

asher@timesfreepress.com