Fort Drum reducing its contracts with JRC
Dozens of Jefferson Rehabilitation Center clients likely will see their work hours slashed as JRC is about to lose two Fort Drum contracts worth $350,000.
The reductions are in response to Fort Drum recently learning it will lose $36 million in federal funds that pay for various services on post.
The news comes six months after JRC, 380 Gaffney Drive, learned it would lose $400,000 in state Office of Mental Retardation and Developmental Disabilities funding for its sheltered-workshop program. A year before that, the center had $80,879 cut in state Office of Mental Health funds for the same program.
Michael C. Capone, JRC's community relations manager, said the agency's contract with the post's Central Issue Facility, where soldiers are issued or turn in equipment, will be cut $300,000, or 30 percent of the $1 million contract. The agency also will lose $50,000, or 30 percent of the $166,667 recycling contract with Fort Drum, which employs JRC clients at the post's recycling facility.
"We were given an ultimatum that it had to be cut by a certain amount per month," Mr. Capone said. "The garrison commander's budget for us has been reduced by 30 percent. There's a little sacrifice that'll be made."
The base is expected to lose more than $36 million in funding for fiscal year 2010, which began in October. If the proposed reduction figure sticks, the cut will reduce the post's operating budget from $119 million in fiscal year 2009 to $82.7 million.
Calls to the Fort Drum Public Affairs office were not returned Friday afternoon.
Two temporary workers under the central facility contract lost their jobs, as did one worker under the recycling contract. Although specific reductions in funding for the JRC/Fort Drum contracts for the dining facilities and janitorial duties have yet to be determined, hours for all contract employees will be cut.
Full-time workers will lose eight hours, while part-time workers will lose four hours. Mr. Capone said full-time employees may be able to receive partial unemployment funds from their time lost.
Mr. Capone said the Central Issue Facility contract has altered work hours for 20 JRC clients thus far, but he said he didn't know how many people lost hours from the change in the recycling contract.
He said some clients may be transferred to other jobs throughout the community. The agency's biggest concern, Mr. Capone said, is that no program be cut completely.
That has also been JRC's concern for the sheltered workshop program, which trains clients to acclimate to being in public, whether for the first time or if they have been away from it for a while.
"The workshop, as it was, was kind of a dinosaur," Mr. Capone said. "We're trying to make it an employment model."
At JRC's sheltered workshop, Production Unlimited, the center's clients produced goods such as three-ring binders, college exam booklets, equipment record folders and equipment tags through various state and federal contracts. The 140 clients who worked at Production Unlimited were transferred to other jobs, placed in a traditional working environment or put in a day habilitation program.
Mr. Capone said JRC continues to look for additional funding sources to replace the money lost by the state budget cut.
