Press and Sun-Bulletin from Binghamton, New York • 7

Sun-Bulletin SECTION State pressconnects.com TUESDAY JULY 29, 2003 Board tackles Medicaid spending BINGHAMTON Schedule set for National Night Out United Neighbors of Binghamton will participate in National Night Out with several events on Aug. 5 to encourage crime prevention and safe communities. Events are planned from 2:30 to 4:30 p.m. at the Broome County Public Library; 3 to 6 p.m. at Saratoga Terrace Apartments; 4 to 7 p.m.

at Carlisle Hills Apartments; 5 to 7 p.m. at Columbus Park; 5 to 8 p.m. at MacArthur Park; 5 to 8 p.m. at Cheri Lindsey Park; 5 to 8 p.m. at Fairview Park; and 6 to 8:30 p.m.

at Recreation Park. Along with the traditional display of outdoor porch lights to show solidarity against crime, the day is also marked by neighborhood "block parties" and special events that promote public safety. William Moyer DICKINSON BCC tuition to rise $30 per year Full-time students at Broome Community College will pay $30 more a year in tuition under a budget approved by the Broome County Legislature and the college's board of trustees. The tuition increase is part of a $37.8 million budget for the 2003-04 academic year. The increase will bring annual tuition to $2,530 for the next academic year, said Charles J.

Quagliata, vice president for student and community affairs. Quagliata said lawmakers and trustees made no changes to the proposed spending plan submitted by administrators in May. The plan calls for no increase in county funding for the college. It projects a 5 percent enrollment increase. BCC's three major sources of revenue in 2003-04 will be: Broome County support, $5.7 million; student tuition, $14.1 million; and state aid, $11.7 million.

George Basler CONTACT US Do you have relatives in Iraq? Do you have a son, daughter, husband, wife, or other relative serving in the U.S. military in Iraq? If so, call Staff Writer Liz Sadler between 10:30 a.m. and 12:30 p.m. or between 2:30 and 4:30 p.m. today at 798-1176.

DEATHS Lena H. Carlson, 94, of Johnson City. Arnold D. Creeley 82, of Berkshire. Robert Cutmore, 85, of Wilton.

Conn. Ralph DaBrescia, 80, of Hancock. Elaine DeCicco, 65, of Susquehanna, Pa. Barbara Goodenough Edwards, formerly of Vestal. Virginia Aicher Green, 88, of Vestal.

Jeanette A. Hayward, 29, of Johnson City. Charlotte H. Jennings, 96, of Denville, N.J. Frances C.

Jones, 81, of Colesville. Edwyn Mason, 90, of Zephyrhills, Fla. Florence G. Moore, 96, of Johnson City. Donald R.

Withers, 87, of Port Charlotte, Fla. INSIDE Complete obituaries. PAGE 4B CORRECTION Angela Bagnetto of Endwell is 21 years old. Her age was incorrect in a headline in Sunday's local section. FOR CORRECTIONS Please bring errors in stories, photos, graphics or headlines to the attention of Managing Editor Gary Graham at 798-1244 or Reader Representative Michelle Terry at 798-1317.

CONTACT US: Matt Sullivan Metro Editor 607-798-1151 OR 1-877-348-7811 Task force looks to trim $41 billion program, boost salaries The roundtable task force discussions plans with to health hold ALBANY How to rein in spending on the state's $41 billion Medicaid health program for the poor is the unenviable job of the Senate Medicaid Reform Task Force, which met for the first time Monday. Not everyone at the meeting even agreed on that goal. Dennis Rivera, the head of the powerful healthcare workers' union that added billions to the Medicaid tab in a January 2002 deal, said the task force By ERIKA ROSENBERG Albany Bureau should not simply focus on cutting the task-force goal deals exclusively with reducing costs, I think that is not working in the most effective way. We have to take a look at the whole health-care needs of our community," said Rivera, head of the New York Citybased Local 1199 of the Service Employees International Union. The union won a huge victory in January 2002 when Gov.

George E. Pataki and the Legislature passed a bill pumping more than $2 billion into the healt system to boost salaries for nurses, aides and other PATAKI employees. Now, the added strain on state and county budgets. The state raised income and sales A PERSONAL STAKE Photos by WAYNE HANSEN Press Sun-Bulletin Chef Tiffany Sexton of Johnson City serves up the Number 5 Restaurant's Cowboy Steak, Monday's first meal of the day. 20-year-old tackles nights as a city chef By RACHEL COKER Press Sun-Bulletin BINGHAMTON Tiffany Sexton goes to work early on Mondays to make soup.

The 20-year-old chef chops 5 or 6 pounds of bacon in a matter of minutes, and soon has several pots going on a giant six-burner stove at the Number 5 Restaurant in Binghamton. It's a little after 2 p.m., and the Johnson City resident has another hours of work ahead of her. "What's on the books for tonight?" she asks Paul Nichols, the kitchen manager, while reaching for a 20-quart pot. He says there are about 40 reservations, but doubts the night will be that slow. "We'll do 100 one way or another," he says.

On a typical weekday, the restaurant serves about 120 din- DAY IN THE This Tuesday feature provides LiFE daily glimpses lives of into the the people in the Southern Tier. If you know someone who would make an interesting subject, e-mail Wayne Hansen at or call 798-1187. taxes this year, in part to avoid big cuts to health spending, but the state comptroller predicts a deficit next year of $5.3 billion. "I'm not going to sec anything that was done in the past," said Senate Majority Leader Joseph Bruno of the 2002 deal. Bruno, R-Brunswick, Rensselaer County, created the task force.

He said boosting salaries to attract and keep good health-care workers was an important goal. "Health-care workers are still among the lowest paid." going full blast, it may reach 120 degrees. Sexton graduated from high school in Meadville, two years ago, then attended the Pennsylvania Culinary Institute in Pittsburgh. The 16-month program includes 12 months of school followed by a four-month "externship." When school started, there were 50 people in her class, mostly men. Seventeen graduated.

And only seven of them are now working as cooks. "It's harder than they expected," Sexton says of the program. "You want the college atmosphere, and it's more reality." SEE CHEF 6B NV teen remembered for de dedication, kindness also killed in Friday crash Lawlor recalled. "Christine cheered always he came said. in "She here 79-year-old So did Miss Berry, her co-work- and me up," ENDICOTT Christine Berry always made time to talk and joke with Michael Capani of Binghamton, whose wife is a resident of Ideal Senior Living Center's dementia unit.

"Things can get pretty dull here and sad," Capani said. "She would always brighten up the room when she walked in." Miss Berry, 19, died Friday in a head-on car collision on Route 38B in Newark Valley. The 2002 Newark Valley graduate was a Dean's List student at Broome Community College who worked at Nationwide Credit Inc. in experts across the state and then develop recommendations by the start of next year's legislative session in January. Pataki and Assembly Democrats would have to agree to put any reforms into place.

One of the task force's chairmen predicted it will reach its goal of finding ways to rein in costs for one simple reason it must be done. "We can't afford to go on the way that we're going, said Sen. Raymond Meier, R- Western, Oneida County. BRUNO 5 Chef Tiffany Sexton hefts a 50-pound box of potatoes up the stairs to Number 5 Restaurant's kitchen on ners. A weekend could mean 200 to 250.

Sexton keeps working on the soup, a cream of potato with bacon made from her own recipe. She doesn't do any measuring as she moves on to chopping onions. Realizing she needs potatoes, Sexton darts through the front of the kitchen, down the steps, Vestal and as an activity aide at Ideal. She recently became engaged to James Lavine of Richford, who survived the crash. The driver of the second car, 79-year-old James P.

Connerton of Binghamton, also was killed. His wife, Mary, was in critical condition Monday night at Wilson Memorial Regional Medical Center, Johnson Tioga County sheriff's deputies said Miss Berry was eastbound on Route 38B when she drove into the westbound lane and collided with the Connertons' car. A former neighbor remembered Mr. Connerton as friendly and kind to his neighbors. "He always had a smile," Rita SEE MEDICAID 4B Students, families deal with SUNY bills Increase has some scraping for funds By MICHAEL GORMLEY Associated Press ALBANY Students and families are dealing with State University of New York tuition bills reflecting a 28 percent increase, but massive dropouts predicted by student protesters earlier this year have not materialized.

"I was surprised at the increase, and we had to do some adjustments," said Karen Pufky of Endwell. Pufky received her daughter Jen's SUNY bill two weeks ago. She felt that was short notice for such an increase, although she followed press accounts of the wrangling in Albany that made it clear some increase was inevitable. The SUNY board of trustees voted June 30 to increase annual tuition to $4,350 for the state's two- and four-year colleges. She said the family has extended a loan and her daughter will consider taking on another job, in addition to one as a residence hall assistant.

But the family may dig deeper or borrow more so that another job doesn't detract from studies. "I have several friends who said they aren't going to be able to come back, or they will have to cut back on their other activities, like clubs and student government, to take on another job," said Jen Pufky, who will start her junior year in September at SUNY Oswego. Total SUNY enrollment last year was about 403,000 students, including two-year, four-year, graduate and professional schools, and community colleges. Extra loans are something a lot of American families and students are learning to live with. A study released this month by The Institute for Higher Education Policy, a nonprofit research group, found private loan indebtedness for college costs increased 346 percent since 1995-96.

The nonpartisan group found students nationwide have increasingly relied on private loans after borrowing the maximum in federally subsidized loans. In New York last year, before the tuition increase, the state Higher Education Services Corp. guaranteed a record $2.2 billion in college loans to public and private college students and their parents -an 11 percent increase over the year before. The loans served 493,000 borrowers. The City University of New York is pushing an installment program that allows students to pay over five installments, whittling down the system's $800 annual increase for senior colleges, said CUNY spokesman Michael Arena.

In the spring, many critics of the SUNY tuition increase expressed fears that thousands of students would drop out or not enroll in SUNY colleges, as was the case in the last tuition increase. In 1995, in-state undergraduate tuition increased $750. Enrollment fell by nearly 8,000 students over the following three years. But the student-funded New York Public Interest Research Group is now expressing optimism that fewer students will drop out. "Most of the students I've talked to are figuring out ways to stay in school," said NYPIRG's Miriam Kramer.

"They are committed to staying in college, for now. I'm only hearing good things." SUNY doesn't yet have fall enrollment data. However, the state Higher Education Service which processes student aid and loans by students planning to enroll, has seen no dropoff from last year's record number of applications. But there is displeasure that tuition bills have been so late. "It'squite annoying.

I would normally have known what my bill was well before this date," said George Pape, who will be a senior at the state University at Buffalo and is a former student representative on the SUNY board of trustees. "It seems like the (campuses) are trying to catch up to the Monday. through the dining room and into a storage room. She grabs a sack of onions and runs back upstairs. "I'm tired now." she says, breathing heavily.

"That bag weighs 50 pounds." It's easily 85 degrees in the kitchen at this point, but the cooks agree it feels pretty cool. Later on, when the ovens are all By CONNIE NOGAS Press Sun Bulletin ers at Ideal recalled. She talked with residents, mostly Alzheimer's patients; fed them snacks, fetched them drinks and played games such as bean bag tosses with them. "She was always passing out hugs," said Carol Shaver, a nurse on the dementia floor. She took patients for walks outside to admire flowers and wheeled those in wheelchairs to activities such as a visiting musician, Shaver said.

always had time for everybody," Shaver said. Miss Berry didn't forget patients' families. Capani was invited to her wedding, which was scheduled for next June. visited us every time she was here." Miss Berry worked Mondays and Wednesdays, and last saw Capani on July 23. "I said: 'I will see you Monday, he said.

"Monday's here, but Christine is Mr. Connerton's funeral Mass is scheduled for 10 a.m. today at St. Patrick's Church in Binghamton. Calling hours for Miss Berry are scheduled for 2 to 4 p.m.

and 7 to 9 p.m. today at MacPherson Funeral Home in Newark Valley. Her funeral is scheduled for 10 a.m. Wednesday at the funeral home. e-mail:.