By Scott Brinton
County slashes funds for Bellmore-Merrick's only drug-treatment clinic
Facing a $150,000 deficit in its $250,000 annual budget, Bellmore-Merrick's only drug-treatment clinic for young people could very well shutter in the near future, say agency officials.
Tempo Group, which joined forces with the Bellmore-Merrick Central School District to create the clinic almost seven years ago, was hit with $100,000 in Nassau County contractual cuts in January, meaning Tempo could not pay the debts it had accrued in 1999.
With help from state Senator Charles Fuschillo Jr. (R-Merrick), the state picked up Tempo's lost funds, enabling the agency to hobble along for the rest of the year. The state, however, also made no promise of future revenues for the clinic.
With a potential budget gap running into the tens of millions of dollars, Nassau County is again looking to cut its "discretionary" contracts with Tempo.
To date, the county has not renewed (and apparently will not renew) two contracts that were promised to the clinic in 2000: one for $75,000 with the County Department of Drug and Alcohol Services, and the other for $75,000 with the Office of Intergovernmental Affairs, said Barry Wilansky, Tempo's executive director.
With such a dramatic reduction from its primary funding source, Nassau County, Tempo Group may not survive long term, said Mr. Wilansky, a North Bellmore resident. The agency could close out the year in December with a $150,00 debt it cannot pay.
Speaking of the possibility that Tempo might close, Mr. Wilansky said, "That's a strong probability, unless someone comes to the rescue.
"We have no money. We're in deficit. We're operating on borrowed monies," he said.
If the clinic were to shut down, some 500 young people -- 10 percent of the Central District's student population -- would be left without a local center for treatment of their drug addictions, meaning they would have to find help outside their home community or go it alone.
Tempo Group offers "clinic-based" medication management in its offices at the Brookside School on Meadowbrook Road, as well as individual psychiatric and group counseling. Tempo also provides crisis-intervention services in local school districts when a student's close relative has died.
Janet Goller, president of the Central School Board, said that if Tempo Group were to close, "It would be a devastating loss to the community. Our students would lose out, our families would lose out.
"It's just another example of how we're all being hurt by the state the county is in," she added.
Kate Collins, Central District administrator and spokeswoman, has worked closely with Tempo Group in developing an after-school program aimed at keeping 100 students at Grand Avenue and Merrick Avenue middle schools off the streets and out of trouble. "I can't think of Tempo having to close. It's too hard. I don't even want to go there," said Ms. Collins.
She also said that, at each of the Central District's five schools, Tempo stations social workers who counsel young people about how to stay away from drugs.
Institutionalized funding
Mr. Wilansky hopes to have Tempo's funding "institutionalized" with the State Office of Alcohol and Substance Abuse Services (OASAS), meaning that its revenue stream would come directly from that office. Right now, the county takes state monies and disburses them to local agencies through discretionary contracts, which it is free to cut.
"We're hoping to resolve Tempo Group's problem by working with the state authorities and bypassing the current complications with the county," said Mr. Wilansky. "If successful, we will save the project."
Funds for Tempo's Woodmere office come straight from OASAS. When the county cut Tempo-North Merrick's budget by 50 percent in January, Tempo-Woodmere lost only 4 percent of its funds.
Mr. Wilansky said that he is working with Sen. Fuschillo to institutionalize Tempo's funding with OASAS, but the process is slow going. He also said that, in order to keep Tempo solvent, the center might host fundraisers or increase fees, which would be charged to insurance companies.
Restored monies
Meanwhile, the Democratic-led County Legislature, in its 2001 budget, has restored $2.5 of the $4.9 million -- roughly 50 percent -- that County Executive Thomas Gulotta (R-North Merrick) cut from the Nassau County Youth Board and the Department of Drug and Alcohol Services in January. "The legislature said, as a whole, we're going to do this," said Legislator David Denenberg (D-Merrick).
Last Friday, Mr. Gulotta eliminated $38 million from the Democratic version of the county budget passed 10-9 by the legislature on Oct. 26. However, funds for youth services were not among the monies cut by the county executive, said Mr. Gulotta's press secretary, Diane Baumert-Moyik.
Whether the youth-services restoration will translate into enough funds to keep Tempo alive remains unclear. Earlier this year, when the legislature gave back to Youth Board and Drug and Alcohol $1 million of the cut monies, Tempo got nothing, because it had already received $100,000 from the state. The Youth Board commissioner made that call, said Mr. Denenberg.
The legislator also said that once the county distributes the restored monies to Youth Board and Drug and Alcohol for 2001, he plans to lobby those departments' commissioners heavily to return dollars to Tempo Group.
Mr. Denenberg has scheduled a meeting for Nov. 16 with Judy Jacobs (D-Woodbury), the legislature's presiding officer, and Youth Board officials to discuss funding restoration for Tempo.
Mr. Denenberg has also invited officials from the Bellmore-based Long Island Crisis Center to that session. The center, which runs Nassau's only suicide-prevention hotline for young people ages 14 to 24, lost roughly $100,000 in county funding in January. It then received $28,000 back when the county returned monies for youth services in August, leaving the agency with a more than $70,000 deficit.
Tempo Group's history
Tempo replaced Rapport as Bellmore-Merrick's drug-treatment clinic almost seven years ago.
After Rapport closed during the early-1990's, the county sought to do away with a treatment center for Bellmore-Merrick. The county's position was that area residents could attend treatment programs in East Meadow, Freeport, Wantagh or Seaford.
Dr. Marc Bernstein, former Central School District superintendent, pushed hard for a Bellmore-Merrick clinic to fill the service gap caused by Rapport's departure.
State Senator Norman Levy (R-Merrick), who died in 1998, stepped in, securing $75,000 to keep a treatment clinic in Bellmore-Merrick. Requests for proposals went out, with Tempo receiving the winning bid.
