Page 14 - Abacoa Community News - August '20

Page 14, Abacoa
Commissioner’s Update

Yard Sense In 2017, Hurricane Irma left almost 3 million cubic hurricane-related and other landscaping questions, are
yards of vegetative debris on the ground, which took available at http://discover.pbcgov.org/coextension/
By Commissioner three months and cost more than $30 million to collect horticulture/Pages/Hurricanes-and-Your-Landscape.aspx.
Hal Valeche and dispose. If we can keep up with regular yard and tree I hope that these tips will help you stay prepared. For
Hurricane season signals maintenance, it will help lessen the amount of debris that overall hurricane preparedness recommendations, visit
a time for planning and must be collected and deposited following a storm and www.ReadyPBC.org.
preparation. Staying shorten the time of recovery efforts. As always, if there is any way I can assist you, please
vigilant can help us SWA coordinates with the Emergency Operations contact me at (561) 355-2201 or by email at hvaleche@
minimize property Center to monitor a storm’s potential path to decide pbcgov.org. Remember, stay safe and be prepared.
damage and make our if facilities have to close or if they have to suspend
neighborhoods safer in the collection services. The authority offers hurricane
event of a storm. information to help residents understand best practices,
If you have not already done so, now is the time to addressing priorities after a storm passes, and other
complete your major vegetation and tree trimming. Once valuable tips at: https://swa.org/408/For-Residents.
a storm threatens, it is too late. Haulers cannot guarantee Additionally, Palm Beach County’s Cooperative
debris pickup when a storm is approaching because there Extension Service provides guidance on trimming and
is not enough staff, equipment or time to collect and pruning techniques, restoring trees after a hurricane and
dispose of large amounts of debris; and, as wind speeds designing a more wind-resistant landscape. Links to
increase, trucks cannot safely travel the roads. this information, as well as phone numbers for asking
Palm Beach County’s Solid Waste Authority (SWA)
recommends that your trimming include cutting back trees
and weak branches that could contact buildings. Also, thin
your foliage so that the wind can flow freely through the
branches, decreasing the chance that trees or plants will
uproot. Keep in mind that in the unincorporated areas,
six cubic yards is the maximum amount of yard waste
allowable at the curb, and that major land clearing or
tree removal debris is not eligible for collection at the
curb and must be taken to a SWA facility for disposal. If
you hire a lawn care or tree trimming service, consider
contracting with them to haul away the debris. If you live
within a municipality, check with your city officials to
confirm what their collection policies require.
When you have the vegetation squared away, clean
your yard of any items that could pose a danger in
hurricane force winds such as old lumber or broken lawn
furniture and place it at the curb on your bulk waste
collection day.

Three Ways To

Help Struggling

Learners

By Jim Forgan, Ph.D.,
School Psychologist
Learning struggles
cause frustration for
parents and kids. Most
kids who struggle with
learning do so in reading
as approximately 80
percent of learning
disabilities are reading
related. Kids who
continuously struggle to
learn become turned off to school so being a proactive
parent can help prevent future problems. Here are three
ways to help your struggling learner.
First, capitalize on your child’s interests to help
make learning fun. If your young child struggles with
reading, use his interest in Minecraft to learn sight words.
Make flashcards using a Minecraft type font. You could
create a fun way to memorize sight words by making a
flashcards Minecraft concentration game. Or, you and
your child can staple paper together and use some sight
words to write a story about your son and Minecraft. He
can practice reading the story which can motivate him
to read.
Help your child make the most gain in the shortest
time by using specialized reading tutoring. As a well-
intentioned parent you might hire a teacher to work with
your daughter but many teachers don’t use a specialized
reading program. Hire a reading specialist that uses the
Barton, Wilson, or Lindamood-Bell reading programs.
These are designed to help kids with persistent reading
difficulty. To make improvements use at least twice
weekly tutoring.
Last, test your child to pinpoint the exact struggle.
My testing helps you understand the root cause of the
struggle and know how to best proceed with focus.
This can help you know if the struggle is a behavior or
neurological issue.
Dr. Forgan tests kids age 5 to 25 for dyslexia, ADHD,
processing problems, and giftedness. Call (561) 625-
4125 or www.JimForgan.com.