Time to move beyond COVID, get back to the mission, Stanislaus County chairman says
Stanislaus County Board of Supervisors Chairman Terry Withrow said he didn’t expect everyone would agree with the county’s response and strategies for dealing with the COVID-19 pandemic in the last two years.
But the county is ready to move beyond the public health crisis, regardless of what COVID might still throw at the community.
“Life is to be lived, not just survived,” Withrow said in his State of the County speech delivered Tuesday evening in the meeting chambers at Tenth Street Place.
“We cannot take care and improve the lives of others in need if we are solely concerned about our own well-being,” Withrow said.
Withrow thanked fellow supervisors and top county executives for their leadership during the two-year health emergency and offered kudos to health services staff, including Mary Ann Lilly, director of the Health Services Agency, and public health officer Julie Vaishampayan.
He praised health workers in hospitals and the community “who went beyond the call of duty to serve all of us.”
Withrow also expressed appreciation for people working in law enforcement amid adversity. “You perform the most essential and basic function of any in government, to maintain law and order and protect our citizens. You leave your own families each day to go out and protect the families of others,” he said.
Chairman looks at accomplishments
During the annual speech, designed to chart the direction of the county in the coming year, the chairman cited accomplishments that might have been overshadowed by the pandemic.
The first phase of Highway 132 bypass, which had been six decades in the making, is coming to fruition. In addition, the county is purchasing right of way to further extend the North County Corridor and continues work on bridge replacements and improvements, Withrow said.
The chairman noted that four different bus systems were merged into the Stanislaus Regional Transit Authority. The county also opened the remodeled Turlock library and a new library in Empire.
Stanislaus County struggles with an increasing homeless population, but Withrow pointed to attempts to address the problem, including the 182-bed low-barrier shelter in south Modesto, the Kansas House for providing a bridge to traditional housing, and a program to put tiny homes on properties supplied by participating churches.
The Housing Stanislaus Initiative, with advice from the Valley Vision consulting firm, aims to accelerate the availability of affordable and market rate housing, Withrow added.
Client support turns one life around
Withrow criticized state laws that have reduced penalties for many criminal offenses and taken away the ability to end cycles of lawlessness. The county will keep seeking changes to those laws.
As a sign the county doesn’t just support a lock-them-up solution, Withrow praised a Public Defender’s Office effort using case workers and social services to reduce recidivism. About 200 individuals facing incarceration have received case management, counseling, peer support and connection to community resources to help turn their lives around.
Withrow recognized Public Defender staff members and Lorenzo Brown, who wrote a letter telling how the client support model changed his life.
“My entire outlook upon life has been altered,” Brown wrote. “I came here broken, afraid and lost. But with the help of the staff and the Godly direction I receive, here I am a better man today.”
Withrow said he is troubled by a national political trend of division along partisan lines.
“I am troubled that we expend so much energy and time, trying to tear down those with whom we disagree,” Withrow said. “I truly believe God puts us on this planet with a mission to make it a better place. The last couple of years have tested all of our resolves and taken us off our mission course. ... Let’s get back to our mission: building community.”
This story was originally published February 16, 2022 at 7:13 AM.
