County cuts will impact area youth

Westbury was once an area residents avoided. “This was a crime-stricken community,” said lifelong resident Bob Weinberg. “You didn’t want to drive down Prospect Avenue.”

East Meadow’s neighbor to the north recently began showing signs of revitalization, with new buildings and affordable housing bringing life to a worn-down community. But residents now face a new crisis: The McCoy Center Family and Youth Services — a facility that provides needed resources to East Meadow and surrounding areas — expects to close in 60 days unless its Nassau County funding is restored.

According to William Pruitt, the center’s executive director, the county — the only source of revenue for the center — cut $249,000 from its budget when 43 private youth agency contracts were terminated on July 5.

The empty seats at computer desks and baskets filled with books that lie untouched are constant reminders that Pruitt was forced to cancel a six-week summer program. In addition, the center once held parent-support-group meetings on Tuesdays, provided teen-pregnancy prevention information and offered after-school programs. Now, Pruitt says, it’s simply a referral center.

“As a social worker, I’m optimistic, I’m hopeful,” he said when asked if funding would be restored, “but if you look at how these opposing political parties are responding to one another, it appears as if there’s an absence of the real important issue, which is to ensure that the citizens of this county are well served.”

The county’s Republican and Democratic legislators are stalemated. Republicans are asking Democrats to approve a measure to borrow $41 million to pay the county’s property tax assessment refunds, and the Democrats refuse unless Republicans agree to negotiate over legislative redistricting. This leaves the McCoy Center, among others facilities, without funding.

In a letter to the agencies, County Executive Ed Mangano wrote that Democratic legislators “have refused to authorize the planned bonding to pay for court-ordered tax-certiorari judgments and negotiated settlements … As a result of their refusal, the county is now forced to close programs and cut spending in order to pay these judgments.”

Minority Leader Kevan Abrahams said in June that the Democratic caucus would approve no bonding unless Republicans agreed to a redistricting plan that includes a series of public hearings before the Legislature votes in 2013 on a final redistricting map, which could determine the outcome of legislative elections for the next decade. Democrats have charged that the redistricting map proposed by Republicans in 2011 would gerrymander Democrats out of at least two seats and ensure Republican control.

McCoy Center employees consider the not-for-profit a beacon in the community, a place where needy children receive educational and emotional support, and an outlet that assists parents who are working multiple jobs and are still barely able to pay the bills. New buildings might be popping up in Westbury, providing a community facelift, but as Weinberg said, “A new building isn’t going to help a child after school unless there’s somebody in there to help them and bring them up.”

Weinberg, one of 10 members of the McCoy Center’s Board of Directors, added that the only ones who are losing in this financial battle are the children. “I just think that we should put our resources to family and children who really are in need because that’s our future,” he said. “It’s just pure logic. You need to take care of the kids. You have to give them a way. You have to give them the spirit that someone really cares and loves them.”

Pruitt added that depriving families of the center is detrimental to children’s well-being, explaining that older kids will end up watching their younger siblings, and others will be left home alone. “It becomes an inappropriate supervision issue,” he said, “with Child Protective Services getting involved.”

During a typical school year, at least 30 students per day receive free tutoring and homework assistance at the center. “A lot of these parents don’t have the ability to assist the children with their homework, and that’s where these kids are lacking,” said Angela Bowling, a first-grade teacher at Park Avenue School who also works at the McCoy Center. “The children have to suffer all this craziness … [they] are not put first.”

Pruitt said the center could take in up to 70 kids per day and would like to partner with the Career Institute of Health & Technology next door, but that won’t happen without funding. “We’ve got a number of plans on the shelf,” he added, acknowledging that the center was running on a “shoestring” budget even before its funding was cut off.

Meanwhile, parents and children call Pruitt daily, hoping that McCoy will reopen. “It truly breaks my heart to say I can’t give an answer right now,” he said.
“As a caring human being, it’s hard to see kids become victims,” Weinberg added. “If I had Bill Gates’s money, I’d just cut the check and run the place.”

Brian Croce contributed to this story.