Christopher Coen
Melissa Sogard
nancylee1
Manchester NH Mayor Ted Gatsas now trying to cut refugee support services statewide
Posted by Christopher Coen on November 15, 2011
Manchester Mayor Ted Gatsas seems to have a take no prisoners approach to his ongoing war against the International Institute of New Hampshire. Mr. Gastas is now trying to cut refugee support services statewide. In the past he and another City of Manchester city alderman claimed they were concerned that refugees were not receiving adequate services by the International Institute – which is something that concerns me as well. Yet, how would that square with cutting more services? An article in the Concord Monitor has the story:
Manchester Mayor Ted Gatsas has been lobbying members of the Executive Council to vote against contracts for agencies that work with resettled refugees.
The contracts allow the Department of Health and Human Services to give federal funds to Lutheran Social Services and the International Institute of New England for work the groups do with refugees resettled in New Hampshire by the U.S. State Department.
Earlier this year, Gatsas - who could not be reached for comment last week – had asked the State Department to stop sending refugees to his city, so officials there could establish better services to help them.
The International Institute works primarily with refugees in Manchester, and has resettled more than 1,380 there. Lutheran Social Services works in Concord, Laconia and Nashua.
The two state contracts with Lutheran Social Services total $175,000, one for school-related services through August 2012, and one for preventive health services through August 2014, according to Health and Human Services Commissioner Nick Toumpas.
The contracts represent about half of Lutheran Social Services’ refugee program budget, Lutheran administrator Amy Marchildon said.
“It’s certainly a concern for us that the mayor of one community would try to exert influence on operations outside of his community,” she said… Read more here
