By STEVE CAMPBELL and ELIZABETH ZAVALA - Fort Worth Star Telegram - May 1, 2009
The popular Mayfest festival was canceled right before it opened Thursday, and parents scrambled to cover child care as area residents adjusted to life in the epicenter of a national public health crisis.
The number of confirmed swine flu cases in Texas grew to 26 Thursday as health officials continued massive rounds of testing, said Williams Ayers, a spokesman for the Texas Department of State Health Services. No deaths have been reported since the one confirmed Wednesday.
In Tarrant County, confirmed cases rose from one to five, and there are 15 probable cases, the health department said Thursday afternoon. Two of the confirmed cases are in Euless and three are in Fort Worth, with patients’ ages ranging from 11 months to 37 years.
With the number of infected residents growing, Fort Worth officials canceled most city-affiliated public events, including the Cinco de Mayo celebrations in north Fort Worth, and county health officials issued orders aimed at limiting gathering places for schoolchildren.
Inside Fort Worth schools, which were ordered closed Wednesday night, crews began sanitizing 144 campuses that serve 80,000 students. Administrators spent much of the day determining what effect the districtwide closure would have on payroll, finances and academics.
Birdville school district officials announced that the Shannon Learning Center, the district’s alternative education program, would be closed though May 11 because an educational assistant is one of the confirmed cases of swine flu, said Mark Thomas, the district’s spokesman. All other campuses will remain open on their normal schedule.
Mayfest grounded
Fierce spring weather has never stopped the Mayfest festival — it was pounded by fist-sized hail that injured 90 people on May 5, 1995 — but the swine flu shut it down.
Organizers of the 37-year-old event were alerted shortly after noon via e-mail that the Fort Worth Parks and Community Services Department and Tarrant County Public Health were canceling it and other outdoor gatherings in the city to try to slow the spread of the flu.
Mayfest leases the park from the city, so organizers had no choice but to close.
"I guess everyone needs to go lock themselves in their homes," said Steve Morgan of Arlington, who, along with his partner, Tempie Rodgers, spent nearly three months working on Terror on the Trinity, a haunted house.
Organizers expect to lose about $500,000 with the cancellation. The event’s board expects to meet soon to discuss whether vendors’ fees will be reimbursed, said Elizabeth Basham, Mayfest’s executive director.
The reason for closures
After-school and sports programs at Fort Worth recreation centers are canceled until at least May 8, although the facilities will stay open, Mayor Mike Moncrief said at a news conference. Polling places for city and school board elections will also remain open.
Dr. Sandra Parker, the medical director for Tarrant County Public Health who recommended Wednesday that Fort Worth schools close, said most of the local cases have involved Fort Worth students. She said she advised canceling Mayfest and Cinco de Mayo events because "they’re identified with the population we’re concerned with."
"Social distancing" measures she ordered Thursday — advising that students stay away from malls and movie theaters — are aimed at places where young people are likely to hang out, she said.
She is discussing the situation with officials at the Fort Worth Zoo, Rangers Ballpark in Arlington and other gathering places, although they remain open.
Tarrant County Administrator G.K. Maenius said Thursday that the county’s public health department has not shut down schools or public events, but has recommended closures. Recommendations for school closures are also coming from the Texas Education Agency, he said.
"We recommended not holding organizing events like Mayfest or Cinco de Mayo or celebrations that are specifically designed to attract the attendance of Fort Worth ISD students, who as a group has been identified as an at-risk population," Maenius said.
Medical precautions
Local hospitals aren’t taking any chances.
Face masks are being distributed to patients at JPS Health Network clinics and hospitals, said JPS spokeswoman Jamie Brown. "Registration reps will provide patients a mask if someone is experiencing flulike symptoms," she said.
JPS is also working with Fort Worth school officials to keep its school-based clinics open, so children who have flulike symptoms can be seen by medical staff away from other patients to help prevent the spread of the flu.
Cook Children’s Medical Center canceled a neonatal intensive care unit reunion this weekend. About 500 families were expected to attend, spokeswoman Kristin Peaks said.
Arlington Mayor Robert Cluck said people should remain calm and take simple steps, such as washing their hands and avoiding sick people. "There is no cause for alarm," he said.
Cleburne Superintendent Ronny Beard said he was awakened by state health officials at 4:30 a.m. Wednesday telling him he should close the district’s schools. He said the state is following pandemic guidelines in urging schools with probable cases to close because it can take several days to know how many children have been exposed to the flu.
The city of Keller said it was sanitizing all of its public facilities, including buildings, playgrounds and parks. Commonly touched surfaces were being treated with antiseptic solution. Girl Scouts canceled their council-sponsored events in Fort Worth through May 10, including a dance party, a zoo overnight and a performance of Cinderella by the Fort Worth Opera.
Churches, too, are adjusting their routines.
The Roman Catholic Diocese of Fort Worth will not serve wine during Mass until further notice. Other churches are asking members not to shake hands or hug.
Major concert venues and museums throughout North Texas — including the Nokia Theatre at Grand Prairie, Billy Bob’s Texas, House of Blues in Dallas, Bass Hall, the Kimbell Art Museum and Amon Carter Museum — said Thursday that they would remain open. Both the Kimbell and the Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth canceled children’s programs scheduled for the next week, however.
"An opera performance is not the same environment as a school, so we are not concerned at this time," said Darren Woods, general director of the Fort Worth Opera, which has performances scheduled at Bass Hall this weekend.
Six Flags Over Texas said it plans to have normal park hours Saturday and Sunday.
On the job
Fort Worth-based American Airlines, a major air carrier between the U.S. and Mexico, extended to May 31 changes in travel plans without penalty.
Doug MacHatton, a spokesman for Alcon Laboratories, said the firm’s 3,000 employees have had "no significant" absenteeism due to parents staying home with their children.
But the flu scare is letting the air out of at least one local business.
Jane Stiles, co-owner of All Star Party Service in Fort Worth, began getting cancellations on this weekend’s bounce-house party bookings immediately after the school district announced closings.
"We had our equipment up and they called up to come and take it down," Stiles said.
Contributing to this report were staff writers Alex Branch, Mike Lee, Anna Tinsley, Anthony Spangler, Susan Schrock, Eva-Marie Ayala, Diane Smith, Dianna Hunt, Gene Trainor, Bill Hanna, Lois Norder, Lee Williams, Susan Schrock, Tracy Shurley, John Austin, Andrea Ahles, Mitch Mitchell and Trebor Banstetter.
Read more in the Fort Worth Star Telegram
Showing posts with label Fort Worth Employee's Retirement Fund. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Fort Worth Employee's Retirement Fund. Show all posts
Friday, May 1, 2009
Friday, February 15, 2008
INSURANCE: Fort Worth death that wasn't puts us all on notice
By Gina Best - Special to the Star-Telegram - Feb. 12, 2008
Longtime Fort Worth resident Mary G. Anderson recently had a near-death experience of the most perplexing kind.
Her unusual story began Nov. 18 when an obituary for Mary Ann Anderson, an 83-year-old Alvord homemaker, was published in the Star-Telegram. Her survivors include a daughter and grandchildren.
The obituary caught the eye of a staff member at the Employees' Retirement Fund of Fort Worth who apparently scans the obituary columns daily looking for pension recipients who have died. The employee inexplicably decided that the Alvord woman was in fact Mary G. Anderson, also 83, who receives a portion of her late husband's pension. Her husband, Guy Anderson, who died in 2004, worked for the city of Fort Worth for more than 30 years.
The pension fund employee didn't call the funeral home or survivors to confirm. She also didn't call Anderson's residence or send a certified letter. Instead, based solely on the obituary, the employee canceled the December pension check that had been automatically deposited into Mary G. Anderson's bank account. And the fund didn't remit her January pension deposit.
The two Marys lived in different cities and had different middle names and different birthdays.
Mary G. Anderson has lived and worked in Fort Worth her entire life, and her address must be on file with the retirement fund. Her middle name is Guthrie, her maiden name. And her birthday is in August; Mary Ann Anderson's was in March.
That mistake triggered another problem. When the pension fund canceled its deposit, the bank returned a December Social Security check that was supposed to be automatically deposited into Anderson's account.
Meanwhile, Anderson was unaware that anything was amiss until Jan. 11, when the Social Security Administration contacted her to ask about the returned check. "I had to prove to them that I am indeed alive," she said.
Her Social Security check was redeposited immediately.
She then contacted her bank, discovered the problem with her pension checks and realized that she hadn't received a statement from the retirement fund.
She called the fund, where a pension fund employee explained that her obituary had been printed in the newspaper.
Anderson asked why the pension fund didn't call or write to verify her death; the employee told her that "they did not have the staff to make telephone calls to people," Anderson said. The employee also said -- wrongly -- that the Alvord woman had the same birth date and Social Security number.
"I will never understand why they tried to tag me as deceased," she said. "They ought to have a better way to research it before they automatically declare somebody dead."
Anderson, who worked in the title business for more than 30 years, said she knows how important facts and figures are. "When I'd see something, you know, a red flag, I was never above making a telephone call."
A watchdog in her own right, Anderson had the situation resolved by late January, and because she had enough savings, she avoided an overdraft. She contacted The Watchdog because she doesn't want anyone else who receives a pension from the Fort Worth fund to face the same situation.
Wanda Valentine, deputy director of benefits and administration at the pension fund, said she has "apologized profusely" to Anderson. She also said her office is not understaffed.
Employees do scan obituaries to look for people who may have worked for the city and are of retirement age. They then key those names into the fund's database to see whether there is a match with a recipient. If it isn't clear, employees are supposed to take additional measures.
"The goal is to try to reach the retiree or some family member," Valentine said. If they can't talk to someone, employees are supposed to send a certified letter to the recipient's residence.
"This one just kind of fell through the cracks. ... We can't make an excuse for that," Valentine said.
The bank apparently handled the matter of Anderson's supposed death as it should.
It appears that when the pension fund reported Anderson as deceased to the clearinghouse that processes direct deposits, the clearinghouse notified the bank.
If a bank learns of the death of a recipient, it must return federal payments such as a Social Security deposit, said Tom Clark, a public affairs specialist for the Social Security Administration office in Fort Worth.
But Social Security takes steps to confirm a death. That also enables the administration to see whether someone else is eligible for the benefits of the deceased.
And so Mary G. Anderson was returned to the living. Mistakes such as the one she experienced can happen. But take comfort in this: There are everyday Watchdogs who walk among us, keeping an eye out for others. Thanks for sharing your story, Mary.
Need a watchdog?
Requests should be made in writing to watchdog@star- telegram.com or mailed to P.O. Box 1870, Fort Worth, TX 76101.
If you have a tip about an investigative story, contact the Star-Telegram investigative team at 817-390-7027.
watchdog@star-telegram.com
Read more in the Fort Worth Star-Telegram
Longtime Fort Worth resident Mary G. Anderson recently had a near-death experience of the most perplexing kind.
Her unusual story began Nov. 18 when an obituary for Mary Ann Anderson, an 83-year-old Alvord homemaker, was published in the Star-Telegram. Her survivors include a daughter and grandchildren.
The obituary caught the eye of a staff member at the Employees' Retirement Fund of Fort Worth who apparently scans the obituary columns daily looking for pension recipients who have died. The employee inexplicably decided that the Alvord woman was in fact Mary G. Anderson, also 83, who receives a portion of her late husband's pension. Her husband, Guy Anderson, who died in 2004, worked for the city of Fort Worth for more than 30 years.
The pension fund employee didn't call the funeral home or survivors to confirm. She also didn't call Anderson's residence or send a certified letter. Instead, based solely on the obituary, the employee canceled the December pension check that had been automatically deposited into Mary G. Anderson's bank account. And the fund didn't remit her January pension deposit.
The two Marys lived in different cities and had different middle names and different birthdays.
Mary G. Anderson has lived and worked in Fort Worth her entire life, and her address must be on file with the retirement fund. Her middle name is Guthrie, her maiden name. And her birthday is in August; Mary Ann Anderson's was in March.
That mistake triggered another problem. When the pension fund canceled its deposit, the bank returned a December Social Security check that was supposed to be automatically deposited into Anderson's account.
Meanwhile, Anderson was unaware that anything was amiss until Jan. 11, when the Social Security Administration contacted her to ask about the returned check. "I had to prove to them that I am indeed alive," she said.
Her Social Security check was redeposited immediately.
She then contacted her bank, discovered the problem with her pension checks and realized that she hadn't received a statement from the retirement fund.
She called the fund, where a pension fund employee explained that her obituary had been printed in the newspaper.
Anderson asked why the pension fund didn't call or write to verify her death; the employee told her that "they did not have the staff to make telephone calls to people," Anderson said. The employee also said -- wrongly -- that the Alvord woman had the same birth date and Social Security number.
"I will never understand why they tried to tag me as deceased," she said. "They ought to have a better way to research it before they automatically declare somebody dead."
Anderson, who worked in the title business for more than 30 years, said she knows how important facts and figures are. "When I'd see something, you know, a red flag, I was never above making a telephone call."
A watchdog in her own right, Anderson had the situation resolved by late January, and because she had enough savings, she avoided an overdraft. She contacted The Watchdog because she doesn't want anyone else who receives a pension from the Fort Worth fund to face the same situation.
Wanda Valentine, deputy director of benefits and administration at the pension fund, said she has "apologized profusely" to Anderson. She also said her office is not understaffed.
Employees do scan obituaries to look for people who may have worked for the city and are of retirement age. They then key those names into the fund's database to see whether there is a match with a recipient. If it isn't clear, employees are supposed to take additional measures.
"The goal is to try to reach the retiree or some family member," Valentine said. If they can't talk to someone, employees are supposed to send a certified letter to the recipient's residence.
"This one just kind of fell through the cracks. ... We can't make an excuse for that," Valentine said.
The bank apparently handled the matter of Anderson's supposed death as it should.
It appears that when the pension fund reported Anderson as deceased to the clearinghouse that processes direct deposits, the clearinghouse notified the bank.
If a bank learns of the death of a recipient, it must return federal payments such as a Social Security deposit, said Tom Clark, a public affairs specialist for the Social Security Administration office in Fort Worth.
But Social Security takes steps to confirm a death. That also enables the administration to see whether someone else is eligible for the benefits of the deceased.
And so Mary G. Anderson was returned to the living. Mistakes such as the one she experienced can happen. But take comfort in this: There are everyday Watchdogs who walk among us, keeping an eye out for others. Thanks for sharing your story, Mary.
Need a watchdog?
Requests should be made in writing to watchdog@star- telegram.com or mailed to P.O. Box 1870, Fort Worth, TX 76101.
If you have a tip about an investigative story, contact the Star-Telegram investigative team at 817-390-7027.
watchdog@star-telegram.com
Read more in the Fort Worth Star-Telegram
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