Groups hear update on Somali refugees
Thursday, March 15, 2007
Ten weeks after the death of a Tyson worker from tuberculosis, no other active cases have been found in Emporia by health officials.
Lougene Marsh, director of the Flint Hills Community Health Center, told a joint meeting of city and county officials that follow-up testing was now underway. Both the worker’s personal contacts and those medical personnel who came into contact with him are being re-tested to be certain the disease hasn’t spread.
“If they don’t walk away with TB, the risk to the rest of the community is very, very, very low,” Marsh said.
The report was part of an overall update on the Somali refugees by Marsh and city human relations director Patty Gilligan. Gilligan noted that Catholic Social Services is now operating out of Sacred Heart Church periodically to help the refugees with their paperwork Jewish Vocational Services has also been offering help with vocational issues for two Fridays a month, operating out of Grace United Methodist.
“One of the things we need to remember here is that these refugees came here for jobs,” Gilligan said. “That’s a good reason to have them.”
Those refugees with families tended to be the happiest here and the most likely to want to stay, she said. Single men tended to be less happy and wanting to go elsewhere.
Sheriff Gary Eichorn said his deputies hadn’t had many problems with the refugees, other than some driving issues.
“They’re not good drivers,” he said. “We’ve had some arrests, some tickets out in the county. They’ve hit trees and some things. But they haven’t been a big impact on us.”
City and county officials also talked briefly about how to share ambulance costs, how the first meeting of the law-enforcement consolidation task force went, and the status of South Weaver Street.
City Commissioner Ray Toso said the homes nearby Weaver, in the Barnhart Addition, weren’t likely to be annexed by the city any time soon unless the residents request it.
“It’s already been tried,” he said after County Chairman Marshall Miller asked about it. “They don’t want to be annexed.”
johnsie (anonymous) says...
On the Somalians - why are we expected to change our way of life to accommodate them? Our hospital is a good example of what demands have been made to accommodate their customs. This, in turn, has cost $$$$ and you know where those $$$ eventually come from--the Lyon
County taxpayer.
March 16, 2007 at 11:05 a.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )