Newspaper Article

Education, Highways Priorities For Ewing

2000

Overview

Blair G. Ewing was elected in 1998 to his first term as an at- large member of the Montgomery County Council. He was named council president on Tuesday, replacing Michael L. Subin, whose one-year term ended. Before his election to the council, Ewing served for 22 years as a member of the Board of Education. Yes, subsidized housing, and in partnership with the private sector wherever we can manage that. Another element, which is related to growing poverty, is the issue of mental illness, which I think has reached crisis stage in Montgomery County. We've got CPC Health, which is the major provider of mental health services in the county and serves some 4,000 people, filing for bankruptcy, indicating that a major reason, not the only reason, is that the state pays it so little and pays so late that it's caused them, or at least contributed to causing, serious financial problems there. No, but they're the biggest by far. And the other two that are fairly large are St. Luke's House and Threshold Services, and both are having trouble for the same reason. They aren't in bankruptcy, nor are they about to be in bankruptcy, but they are having financial problems. And some of the clinics that they operate are turning away patients, and some of those patients are turning up at the two public clinics that remain. And we're certainly not intended to be a safety net for all those who would not be taken by the private clinics.

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• Subject: Ewing, Blair G / Local government