
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: SATURDAY, July 2, 1994                   TAG: 9407040136
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: C3   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: MELISSA CURTIS STAFF WRITER
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

SALEM COUNCIL TO FUND DENTAL CARE FOR CHILDREN

Salem City Council agreed Friday to pitch in the extra $16,200 needed to pay for fillings and fluoride for more than 200 Salem children whose parents cannot afford dental care.

Council members unanimously voted to pay the additional money to cover the cost of a children's dental care program. The state in May cut funding for the Alleghany Health District by about $160,000.

Salem City Manager Randy Smith said the council, which originally had decided not to pay the extra money for the program, reconsidered.

"Council doesn't want these kids who need dental care to be dropped," Smith said Friday.

The program serves 218 children who qualify for free dental care by being in Salem's reduced-price school lunch program.

Smith calls the cutting of state funds a "dangerous trend" in Richmond.

"Programs are started and then eventually handed over to local governments to fund," Smith said.

Before state cuts in May, he said, 45 percent of the program was paid by Salem, and the rest was funded by the state.

Before Salem's decision Friday, it was the only one of three localities to refuse to cover the cost of the dental care. Roanoke County agreed to pay $37,800, and Botetourt County chipped in $36,000 to keep their parts of the program going.

Smith said council members had hoped Dr. Molly Rutledge, director of the Alleghany Health District, would be able to solve the problem by cutting a different program instead.

But the health district, the agency that allocates state funding for health-related programs in Alleghany, cannot cut mandated programs. The children's dental care program was a nonmandated program.

by CNB