Enougli Already
E
7--
LONNY GOLDSMITH
and HARRY KIRSBAUM
Staff Writers
IN
ost communal
agencies say -
they held
their own as
metro Detroit was repeated-
ly blanketed with snow over
the past two weeks, but
some services, such as deliv-
eries to shut-ins and grave
digging, had to bow to the
elements at least a bit. All
five day schools either shut
down for one or more days,
opened late or sent students
home early.
"Meals on Wheels could-
n't deliver last Monday
because they couldn't get
through the snow," said JFS
Associate Executive Director
Karen Fink.
Some home-care staffers
who live in Detroit couldn't
get to work and those who
could had special problems
serving three clients who
live in Detroit.
"Many workers couldn't
get out of their neighbor-
hoods," Fink said, citing in part, the
City of Detroit's long-standing policy
against plowing residential side streets.
Fink said water main breaks that
caused streets to flood and later freeze
are also to blame. "It's been a long,
hard haul," she said.
The Jan. 2 blizzard that rang in
the New Year brought an increase in
calls for shoveling walks, grocery
shopping and picking up prescrip-
tions, Fink said.
She said the Jewish Federation of
Metropolitan Detroit's Resource Line,
JFS's intake line and Elderlink are
getting more calls than usual for
snow removal.
"It's hard for many of the volun-
teers because they are older," she said.
"Many haven't made it in for three or
four days."
The good news from JFS is that
client transportation is running, even
if somewhat behind schedule. "We've
1/1 5
1999
8 Detroit Jewish News
tons of salt and just
28 " received another 96 tons.
.8 "With the conditions we
had, we've done whate
we can do. "
The after-school club
cancelled whenever West
Bloomfield Schools canc
because they are on the
same calendar. Some JC
staff who had been on va
tion had been stuck out
town, Weitzer said.
The Jimmy Prentis
Morris JCC's day care ce
ter in Oak Park has seen
only slight decreases in t
number of children
dropped off each mornin
"Surprisingly enough,
because we offer full day
care, and the majority
our parents are full-day
working parents, as long
the parents' offices are
open the children are stil
coming in," said Dee
Lewin, JPM program coc
dinator.
Connie Thornberry,
Kahn JCC infant-toddler,
coordinator, said the weal
er hasn't affected the num
ber of children showing up.
"We don't follow Walled Lake or
West Bloomfield school district sche
ules," she said. "If they don't have
school, we still do. Parents brought
their children in late, but they still
brought them."
Aside from adding to the gloori„
the weather had only a minor effect
on funerals, said Otto Dube, a fune i
director at Ira Kaufman Chapel in
Southfield.
He said funerals are usually schec
uled a little later on cold winter
mornings to accommodate grave di
ging; heaters are used to soften the
ground, which now has a 7-inch-l-
frost line.
He said traffic snarls during prod
sions delayed some burials, and
rescheduled flights delayed both bo d
ies and family members from arrivi I
on time, but every funeral took plac
appropriately. ❑
'
Two weeks of snow slows some Jewish
communal services.
The Kahn Jewish Community
been able to get clients where they
Center in West Bloomfield does its
need to go," she said.
own groundskeeping and that staff
Fink, thus far, hasn't seen an increase
worked anywhere from 12 to 27 hours
in people asking for monetary assis-
during the initial storm to keep the
tance, but thinks that may be on the
parking lot and
horizon when high-
roads throughout
er-than-usual heat-
Above: Rabbi Elimelech Goldberg
the
Jewish
ing bills come in.
and David Srolovitz brave the weath-
Community
At Jewish
er on their way to morning- minyan
Campus clear.
Apartments and
at Young Israel of Southfield.
No one could
Services, the on-
move
anywhere,
call staff has kept
but
here
you
could
see
cement,"
said
the agency running as usual. "We
Margo Weitzer, JCC programming
share all the snow-removal duties,"
director. "A few programs have had
said Executive Director Marsha
lower attendance, but people still want
Goldsmith Kamin. "We have to make
to recreate in bad weather."
sure that the walks stay clean and that
Jerry Schoener, the Jewish
there is access for all the residents who
Community
Center of Metropolitan
drive, to leave."
Detroit's
building
services and
While all the activities outside the
grounds
director,
said
the blizzard was
building went on as scheduled, fewer
the worst he could recall in his 22
residents were going to them. "Our dri-
years of working at the JCC.
vers are well trained and vehicles well
Since the beginning of January,
maintained, but residents cancel because
Schoener and his staff have used 96
they don't want to go out," Kamin said.