Tab rises for care of polygamist sect members

ShareThis

The West Texas city of San Angelo, alone, is paying $60,000 a day toward the care of 416 children and 139 mothers taken from a polygamist compound in nearby Eldorado, Texas.That cost is likely to be just pennies in the final tally of state taxpayer dollars that will be needed to foot the bill for the sect members' food, shelter, clothing and legal assistance over an unknown period of time."It was declared a disaster situation," San Angelo Mayor J.W. Lown said Thursday.Texas Gov. Rick Perry has no plans at this time to request federal aid, Perry spokeswoman Krista Piferrer said.Perry anticipates a big legal bill for the children, who will be accorded hearings concerning their future welfare and custody. Counties typically pay for such hearings, but Perry said he is working with other state officials to marshal dollars for the "emergency situation."The governor said he does not want cost to be a worry for the state and local officials charged with caring for the women and children from the YFZ Ranch in Schleicher County."Bottom line, the top priority is the safety and well being of these children in our case," Piferrer said.Authorities began removing children and teenagers from the isolated 1,700-acre compound a week ago after suspicions of sexual abuse arose.In a massive effort, 700 Child Protective Services workers took custody of sect children, all members of Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, a renegade splinter from the Mormon Church. The mothers left voluntarily.The first stop for sect members was tiny Eldorado, the closest town to the YFZ compound. As the number of sect members in custody rose, officials turned for help to San Angelo, about 50 miles away.San Angelo and the surrounding Tom Green County saw its population of 106,342 rise by 500 in one day.Mindful of the financial burden that represented, Lown and Tom Green County Judge Mike Brown have signed a declaration requesting assistance from the Texas Governor's Office of Emergency Management.Such declarations tend to climb from the county level to the state and then to the Federal Emergency Management Agency.Local officials are tracking all San Angelo's expenses, which Lown said he is confident will be reimbursed by the state."The first three days, we had about 150 city employees assisting with the effort," Lown said.The city is providing two shelters and has set up portable facilities for bathing and other basic activities.Perry sent a letter Thursday to state Comptroller Susan Combs asking her to allow the Health and Human Services Commission to cover "allowable legitimate emergency costs for state agencies and local governments."The U.S. senators from Texas had not received requests for aid by Thursday, aides said.(Contact Trish Choate at choatet(at)shns.com.)(Trish Choate is Washington correspondent for the San Angelo Standard-Times.www.gosanangelo.com)