By KAREN RICE
The cutbacks would amount to a loss of more than $30,000 for the center, which is way too much, according to Peter Visconti, associate director of the center. We have no security, he said. We were cut 37 percent in 2000 and that was too much. You don't get a lot of dedicated people. We got cut so badly in 2000 that we've suffered enough.
Jonathan Davis, the center's executive director, agrees that cutting funding to the center is the wrong choice for Nassau County. The center provides a number of before and after school programs, night programs, sports, games and leadership and job training to about 2,000 community children, keeping many off the streets and away from drugs and crime. By cutting youth services, the county is sending the wrong message, Davis said.
There will be an increase in gang formation and all the problems that go with that, Davis said. The overall impact is going to be a need for more police and more jail
