Mike Lintner, CEO and President of Marshall Starke Development Center made his annual update to the Marshall County Commissioners during their meeting Monday.
Lintner announced his upcoming retirement and introduced Jody Grolich Smith who will assume the job of CEO and President on April 1st. Smith was born and raised in Argos and has lived in Plymouth for 40 years. She has been with Marshall Starke Development Center for 23 years.
Lintner thanked the commissioners for allowing Marshall Starke to purchase fuel from them and noted the during the first 6 months of their fiscal year they have purchased 13,480 gallons of fuel at an estimated cost savings of $6,000.
Smith noted that their consumers volunteer 80 hours of community service each week including delivering Meals on Wheels, providing cleaning services, grading papers at an elementary school and working at the Neighborhood Center.
Marshall Starke Development Center has a staff of 173 and currently has 10 to 12 openings mainly for the supported living program. Lintner said, “We just don’t get the applications and with more consumers comes the need for more staff.” He noted that they have had to make new consumers wait for services due to the lack of staff.
The center has a total enrollment of 487 with 265 in the adult programs, 182 in Head Start and 40 in Early Head Start. Of the 487 about half are from Marshall County while the majority of the others come from Starke and Fulton counties with a few who provide their own transportation from Saint Joseph and Kosciusko counties.
Not only does Marshall County offer fuel assistance the County Commissioners also provide $110,000 for operational costs for the services provided.
