Originally, the program was intended to provide incentive to landowners or crop producers to take marginal, highly erodible, or environmentally sensitive cropland out of regular production and instead plant various types of cover vegetation, including grasses and trees, by offering a financial incentive - an annual rental payment as part of a multi-year contract and in some cases cost sharing to establish vegetative cover practices. During the '80s, the program also helped to stabilize grain market prices and quantities.

Additional indirect benefits resulted from the program: increased wildlife habitat areas for game birds and waterfowl nesting ground as well as habitat corridors to aid deer and other wildlife movement.

According to NRCS grassland conservationist Brian Peterson, it is an undisputed fact that the total number of acres in the CRP has diminished in the last 10 years as contracts expire and are not renewed.

Peterson continued that it would be easy to think that the change was due to the increased volume of ethanol production but stated, "It's more complex than just a 1:1 relationship."

As commodity prices increase, the cash rental rates producers are willing to pay, in most cases, are higher than what is offered by CRP. Producer perceptions also figure into the equation. Peterson suggested that a lot of land was put into CRP in the mid-'80s when CRP offered a "safety-net" for farmers who were not in good financial shape.

 

He said, "Now that farmers are in better financial shape, landowners are more able to take risks by pulling it out." Landowners, he urged, should consult with their local NRCS and FSA representatives to review all options in advance of their CRP contract expiration.

Air quality is also important and may be influenced by the ethanol manufacturing process.

The model for this plan is based on a successful excursion into offering a mental health access point at the school level in 1997 when WICMHC provided guidance for mental health therapists to work part time in districts across the county.

WICMHC is a private, non-profit corporation with the mission of providing mental health services, enhancing the well being of their consumers, and to cooperatively improve access to services through relationships with other community providers. For more information see www.wicmhc.com.

A remnant of the first program is still available in Denison, Schleswig and Ar-We-Va on a very limited basis.

 

While this program was beneficial and considered a success by the stakeholders, services were reduced as funding decreased.

Pardun commented, "Since we've been down this road before, we know what needs to be done and what pit-falls to avoid."

Galbraith is requesting that the board of supervisors approve $60,000 through the mental health fund for use as seed money in starting the program.

By comparison, she said, "Everybody has already paid $70,000-80,000 since August for committals. We want to be proactive."

Each committal costs approximately $10,000 and the cost is split with the state when a juvenile is involved.

Board Chairman John Lawler expressed concerns about long-term funding, since it isn't really feasible for the county to provide all the financing each year. Galbraith replied that the investigation into multiple avenues of funding is ongoing and she assured the board, "I don't want to start something that's not sustainable."

Board member Dan Muhlbauer pointed out, "If the county is involved, the program needs to be county-wide."

Galbraith responded that it was certainly the intention of the program to offer services through the school districts of the county but would be based in Denison because historically, as the largest school, the majority of the problems occur there.

If the program receives funding, the next step would be to hire a full-time mental health therapist who would be supervised through WICMHC and dedicated to work in the Crawford County school districts.

As Sondag offered, "This person would have the county's and city's resources in their head." They would provide, not only therapy in the schools, but could coordinate access to additional resources for families in the communities. Additional services may include an outreach program or teacher training.

The possible outcomes of this program are replete with varied benefits for each stakeholder. Galbraith summarized that the schools could see increased attendance and grades as well as improvement in overall student body health, WICMHC could see an increase in the number of appropriate referrals, and, in the long run, she hopes to avoid crisis situations.

Additionally, she suggested, "I'm pretty sure [the program] will pay for itself in the long run." An observable return on investment could be seen by the county since mental health issues would be identified in people of a younger age and a plan put in place to address the problem heading off future crisis-type situations requiring more substantial intervention as adults.