County Executive Thomas Gulotta recently proposed eliminating the Nassau Youth Board commissioner's job - a $129,000 cost-saving measure - and giving charge of the Youth Board to the commissioner of social services.
      The plan raised eyebrows at the Long Island Crisis Center in Bellmore, Nassau's only 24-hour, seven-day-a-week suicide prevention hotline for young people. The center was hit last January with $103,000 in county contractual cuts, sending the agency into the red. Mr. Gulotta made the cuts, he said, to help fill a $9.8 million budget hole.
      Crisis center officials fear that any merger between the Youth Board and the Department of Social Services could jeopardize $2 million in state funds for the board. According to officials, the Youth Board must maintain its autonomy to keep the state money. A $2 million blow to the Youth Board would surely reverberate among the non-profit agencies it contracts with, such as the crisis center, agency officials said.
      The Long Island Crisis Center went into crisis mode in recent weeks and started collecting signatures on a petition that calls for the Youth Board to remain independent in all ways. The petition reads in part: "It is critical that the Nassau County Youth Board be maintained as an independent, autonomous and separate department as intended under the County Charter." In all, center volunteers and workers collected 400 signatures.
      At the recent Bellmore Family Street Festival, Bellmorites Kim Burns and Emily Gold, both 16, were collecting petition signatures for the crisis center. Both Kim and Emily, who volunteer at the center, spotted a silver-haired man surrounded by photographers and recognized him as County Executive Gulotta. They thought, why not try to get his signature on the petition? Mr. Gulotta's reply, according to Kim and Emily: "Yeah, sure, I'll sign it." And so he did.
      Dianne Baumert-Moyik, Mr. Gulotta's press secretary, said the county executive has not changed his mind about eliminating the Youth Board commissioner's job. Cutting that position, she said, still leaves the Youth Board as an autonomous agency. "The [social services] commissioner will only oversee the day-to-day operations of the Youth Board," said Ms. Baumert-Moyik. "Policy will still be made by the Youth Board."
      However, that's not good enough for Paula Grenot, the crisis center's assistant director. She and several others attended a meeting of the Nassau County Legislature's Health and Social Services Committee last Monday to protest elimination of the Youth Board commissioner's position. What will come of that effort remains to be seen.
      At the meeting, Joseph Smith, executive director of the non-profit youth agency Long Beach Reach, said, "This plan to reduce funding and merge the Youth Board with Social Services will result in the destruction of the Youth Board."
      Among the other signatures Kim and Emily collected at the Bellmore Street Festival were those of Richard Kessel, chairman of the Long Island Power Authority; Nassau County Legislator David Denenberg (D, Merrick-19th District); and Hempstead Town Tax Receiver Angelina Cullin, who is running for Town Council in District Five.
      Nassau County is returning $28,000 of the $103,000 it eliminated from the crisis center's contract earlier this year. However, that still leaves the center $75,000 short. Agency officials say, with a total annual operating budget of $275,000 for its Suicide Prevention Hotline, $75,000 is a very big deficit to make up.

Further cuts for Youth Board?

      In January this year, Nassau County Executive Thomas Gulotta cut the Youth Board's operating budget roughly in half, from $8.4 million down to $3.9 million. Then, during the summer of 2000, Democrats and Republicans in the County Legislature negotiated with the executive to restore part of those moneys. The Youth Board got back $1 million.
      Recently, Nassau County Legislator David Denenberg (D, Merrick-19th District) learned that the county executive planned further cuts than those already proposed for the Youth Board in fiscal year 2001. According to Mr. Denenberg, John O'Connel, president/CEO of the Long Island Health and Welfare Council, and a report by the Nassau County Interim Finance Authority, the county executive is seeking to reduce the Youth Board's budget to $2.7 million total.
      Local youth agency officials, including those at the Long Island Crisis Center in Bellmore, fear that such a "devastating" cut to their primary sponsoring agency could be force them to shutter for good.
      At press time, Mr. Gulotta could not be reached for comment on this story.

LI Crisis Center needs volunteers

The Long Island Crisis Center, Nassau's only 24-hour, seven-day-a-week suicide prevention hotline, needs volunteers to answer business phones, help with mailings and assist in other office duties. Volunteers are also needed to become hotline counselors. All training is free.
      The center offers training sessions each month. October training begins on the 10th and November training begins on the 13th.
      For more information, one may call the Long Island Crisis Center at (516) 826-0244.

photo #000-bel petition-s.b.: Bellmorites Kim Burns and Emily Gold, both 16, volunteers at the Long Island Crisis Center in Bellmore, are among those seeking to save the Nassau County Youth Board commissioner's job and prevent any form of merger between the Youth Board and the Nassau County Department of Social Services. Such a merger could jeopardize $2 million in state funds for the Youth Board.