Apex Austin is in the process of approving the donation of $11,000 to the Mower County GED program, which is being discontinued at Riverland Community College.

According to Maryanne Law, a member of the Apex executive committee, the program is at risk for being lost as Riverland is phasing it out because of budget constraints and "not seeing the activity as part of the larger college picture."

If the program is lost, Mower County wouldn't be able to ever get it back.

However, the program is needed in the county. In 2001, 398 people participated, 250 people have already taken part this year and 150 are already registered to take GED classes when the next round of classes is offered.

The program requires $24,715 for operating expenses, which include furniture and a Scantron machine.

So far, $13,750 has been procured through grants and other agencies and the remaining $11,000 has been requested from Apex.

Apex members also discussed the possibility of establishing transitional housing for newcomers to the city. Joe Fuhrman, the housing committee co-chair, said the committee would like to find apartments throughout the city that Apex could rent for people who come to the city without housing or money to get housing, but are employed. Apex would pay the landlord rent and the tenants would pay Apex rent as soon as they could afford to do so. "Liliana (Silvestry of the Welcome Center) is inundated with people who have a job, but do not have a place to go and don't have rent or a deposit because they need to work a month to get that money," he said.

The other Apex members thought the program would be successful, and Fuhrman said the housing committee would begin preparing a proposal.

Amanda L. Rohde can be reached at 434-2214 or by e-mail at :mailto: amanda.rohde@austindailyherald.com