POMARIA — Ken McBride, county director at the Department of Social Services, came before Pomaria Town Council to answer questions and address concerns that the town may have Monday evening.
“In our CPS (child protective services) we were seventh last year. We do outreach projects and have Kinship Care. We’re trying to use Kinship Care as much as possible, so if a child does have to go to foster care we make sure it’s not traumatic,” McBride said.
He added that DSS wants to continue to work with all towns and be a place that people see as a resource and not as a place that takes someone’s children.
Mayor Darryl Hentz asked McBride if there have been any calls in the Pomaria area. McBride said that calls have been received from various towns.
McBride added that when he started four years ago, there were 40 kids in foster care, and that number has dropped to about 12 or 13 kids in care.
“Whenever a child comes into foster care, it’s usually because of abuse or sexual abuse or there aren’t any other possible family members, just household situations that get to the point where we have to remove the child from the house,” McBride said. “A lot of our cases are drug-related. Right now, we’re starting to get a lot of meth cases, marijuana and cocaine.”
DSS is continuing to look at child deaths as well, with three SIDS (Sudden Infant Death Syndrome) deaths due to co-sleeping in Newberry this year.
“We don’t recommend that a parent sleeps with a child under the age of one, especially infants because when some people go to sleep they have the tendency to roll over and the child can get pinched between the parent and the mattress,” McBride said.
Proper car seat use is also being pushed by DSS, with kids being at least four before being able to sit in the front seat of a vehicle and 52 inches tall.
“The safest place for a child is rear facing, because that provides the least trauma to the head and neck because crashes are usually frontal or sideways and the neck moves up. The muscles in the neck of a baby aren’t as strong and therefore they can collapse their esophagus,” McBride said.
Other business:
• Hentz informed Council that the Christmas tree has been trimmed and that four truckloads of debris was hauled off. The creek was also cleaned and Hentz said that this would need to be done about every two years. All of this totaled to around $600.
