Paragraph: (Society_Law_and_Justice/oanc-Boone_legal_service-2.txt)
Sent 1: Boone, Ia.
Sent 2: -Poor and elderly people may soon go without legal representation in Boone County.
Sent 3: Boone County Legal Aid, which for 31 years has provided legal services to those who couldn't afford them, will close in February if a $10,000 grant from Prairie Meadows Racetrack and Casino is not awarded.
Sent 4: The legal service is one of the few programs in Iowa that offers legal representation to those who qualify without turning to the state for its services.
Sent 5: "It is a very sad situation, but that's the fact," said Alan Schroeder, city attorney and supervisor of Boone County Legal Aid.
Sent 6: For the past two years using money mostly from the city and county, Schroeder has upheld the outfit alone, taking on about 60 clients a year, and settling cases that range from domestic abuse to bankruptcy.
Sent 7: He also has a private practice.
Sent 8: If the legal service closes, he's unsure where his clients will go.
Sent 9: The city of Boone gave Schroeder $6,300 in July to resolve pending cases, said Kathy Berg, Boone's finance officer.
Sent 10: Without that, the program might already be closed.
Sent 11: "All governments are having problems with finances," Boone Mayor George Maybee said.
Sent 12: "No one else stepped in.
Sent 13: The county didn't.
Sent 14: The state didn't."
Sent 15: Donovan Olson, chairman of the county Board of Supervisors, said the board quit funding the legal service in July because it felt the county didn't need it.
Sent 16: Drake University ended its funding after the 2000 spring semester "for a variety of reasons," Suzanne Levitt, the law professor who oversaw the program, said via e-mail.
Sent 17: Olson said Schroeder must prove Prairie Meadows is the primary money source for the board to grant the program any more money.
Sent 18: Schroeder ran the program without the help of law students or Drake, which had provided as much as two-thirds of the money in some years.