Conway Human Development Center parents and staff filled the center's gym Monday morning to voice their concerns about the center's future to Dr. David Fray, director of the Developmentally Disabled Services Division of the Arkansas Department of Human Services.
"We're here to reassure you first of all," Fray said. "We want to be clear about all the positive things that are going on here. Many times the good news doesn't travel as fast as when someone has a concern. I want to reassure you that there are no plans to close any human development centers, especially here at Conway. There are many people across the country who view this facility as one of the best. I think you should know that. I think you should know that I know that."
DHS has come under fire since recent state budget cuts forced the reduction of staff and services for human development centers across the state as well as other services for the disabled. Fray explained that many families still remain outside the system because of the cuts, unable to get any form of care from the state.
"The problem that we face is that there are many families like you who are asking to get in who need those services," he said. "We have families asking for those services who we can't give them to. We need to be able to have those services that people need and those needs vary. There are many families on a waiting list who wish they had what you had."
Many parents on hand seemed unwilling to accept dwindling state budgets as a reason for diminished services at the center and asked Fray and DHS Deputy Director John Selig about the prospect of raising additional money through sales tax increases.
"A lot of us are frustrated because we're always hearing that we're trying to hang on," one parent said. "We see so much waste in the government. We have a special tax for state parks and for Game and Fish. Why can't we get special taxes raised in order to help people? We need true leadership from both of you."
Selig said many Arkansans are more inclined to pass taxes for services like state parks and Game and Fish because they are services that more people use.
"We're looking really hard to cut where the least pain is," Selig said. "I don't see a lot of interest in the public to raise money. It's not something we as a department would push. That's something for the legislature and the citizenry to do. It's going to be a continuing challenge. In advocating for human development centers, you're going to be competing with all the other folks who think their services are just as critical. That's just the nature of government."
Other parents questioned Gov. Mike Huckabee's commitment to the disabled in the face of the recent cuts.
"Every governor with the exception of this one has had this colony close to his heart," one parent said. "I think that's key. The one thing people in a crisis don't want to hear is how much worse off somebody else is."
Fray responded by saying that while solutions may not always be forthcoming, officials throughout state government have every desire to help CHDC and the disabled in general.
Dr. Clyde Glover, whose son has lived at CHDC for 31 years, encouraged the group to stop blaming officials like Fray and Selig and take a more active role in trying to help the center.
"We're asking them in a way to do the impossible," he said. "If they had their druthers, they'd solve it all for us right now. It's called money. It's going to involve us getting to know our representatives and our senators and getting them involved. They may not be able to do anything right away. We are a minority. People want to withdraw from the idea of handicapped people. We ourselves are going to have to put more pressure on people. We're going to have to work with what we've got."
