YEAR LATER, PERRY COUNTY WORKSHOP HAS CHANGED

PERRYVILLE, Mo. -- Grabbing a lint brush for a microphone, Michael Kassel hopped and spun around the floor of the Perry County Sheltered Workshop Friday afternoon. Several of the other disabled workshop employees danced around him as he moved his lips to Jefferson Airplane's "Somebody to Love."

Kassel had begged for permission to play his favorite song at the workshop all week, supervisor Lauren Mattingly said. Since it was Friday, and payday, Mattingly figured it was time to loosen up.

The mood at the workshop Friday contrasted starkly with the week's last workday a year ago. Workshop manager Bill Tweedy, Mattingly and two other supervisors quit on March 24, 2000, to protest what they called sweatshop conditions for the disabled.

Their protest against VIP Industries of Cape Girardeau, one of the largest sheltered workshop operations in Missouri, divided the community and started a dramatic transformation in assistance to the disabled in Perry County.

It took about four months to come to the decision that quitting as a protest was necessary, Tweedy said. Afterward, VIP operator Hillary Schmittzehe blamed Tweedy for creating a poor work atmosphere.

Accusations of poor management spread to the Perry County Senate Bill 40 board, which appropriates $190,000 in tax money annually to organizations that serve the handicapped. Board member Patrick Naeger, also a state legislator, said then that the board was unduly influenced by VIP Industries.

Board changes

The confrontations eventually led to appointing an almost completely new SB40 board that chose to end VIP's 24-year contract to operate the workshop last April.

But the board's makeup was shuffled again in July when a lawsuit by former board members stipulated that five former members must serve.

However, in the past two months, all but one of the five appointed as a result of the lawsuit have resigned.

Former board member Jim Lottes explained that he had lost interest in the work, and recent turmoil had left him burned out.

The three other members who resigned -- Edna Ponder, Adrian Moll and Sylvester Buchheit -- could not be reached for comment Friday.

Naeger, who is SB40 board chairman, suggested that some who resigned were uncomfortable with the new openness of the meetings, which now have greater public attendance.

For the board, the best change has been in funding for other organizations in the county providing services to the disabled, Naeger said. Prior to last fall, SB40 board money had exclusively gone to the workshop.

The workshop is prospering without getting all the board's money, Naeger said.

Tweedy agreed. Daily attendance by handicapped workers has risen from 48 last year to about 60.

Wages are up

The workshop's average wage is $2.95 an hour, about $1 more than a year ago, Tweedy said. This is significant, since the average for Missouri's 91 sheltered workshops is about $1.90 an hour.

Over the past eight months, the workshop has had a net income of $50,567 and total capital of $186,292.

"I knew we'd be in the black, I just didn't know how far," Tweedy said.

Melvin Brown returned to the workshop last July after leaving out of frustration eight years before. Supervisors were distant and hard to locate, he said.

"I walked away one day and didn't tell anyone I was leaving," said Brown, who is legally blind.

On Friday, 62-year-old Brown was dipping weather stripping in silicone, one of the nine piecemeal contracts at the workshop.

Contracts to assemble small parts and collate documents have increased beyond the workshop's capacity, Tweedy said. A bid from a publisher was turned down this week because it would demand 3,000 square feet of space from a 10,000-square-foot work area that is already full, he said.

The publisher had suggested using the workshop's warehouse, but Tweedy said no.

"It has no air conditioning, and summer's coming," he said.

The workshop's board, created last year, is looking for ways to increase space. Plans for an additional 22,000-foot addition adjoining the workshop have already been drawn by an architect, Tweedy said.

Improved conditions

Day-to-day conditions for workers have received more immediate attention. Instead of a manager and three supervisors, the workshop now has eight full-time supervisors plus four part-timers and two secretaries. All the disabled workers get more attention, he said.

"We don't have to push our people so hard," Tweedy said. "It's a more relaxed atmosphere."

Jane Kassel has noticed the difference in her son, Michael, who is a senior at Perryville High School. When Tweedy, Mattingly, Vicki Zahner and Steve Boxdorfer quit in protest a year ago, she wasn't sure her son would continue his part-time workshop job.

"He stayed, only with the hope that things would get better," Kassel said. "We hoped Bill Tweedy would come back."

Although Tweedy does not have a handicapped child, he understands what they need, Kassel said.

"He just gets it," she said. "It's important for them to have a feeling of self worth, and he gives that."

When Michael graduates later this spring, he will start a 30-hour week at the workshop. It is just what he needs, his mother said.

"It is not just a matter of keeping busy, but morale is high there," she said.