As the county battles with the tainted fruits of fiscal mismanagment, agencies in the social service sector have begun their own battle to replace county funds set to be cut in the new year.

The Hicksville Youth Council and the Central Nassau Guidance and Counseling Services in Hicksville will be directly affected by these cuts.

According to Thomas Bruno, executive director of HYC, they will lose $76,000, or 43 percent, of their funding from Nassau County. In addition to laying off half of his eight-person staff, Bruno stated he will be forced to eliminate several programs that offer employment services, tutoring, and counseling to teenage youth in the Hicksville area.

The HYC was one of 43 agencies receiving funds from the Nassau County Youth Board, and it services approximately 800 youths and families each year. Its lounge which would normally be open after school five days a week, will now probably only be open once a week.

"As of right now I will probably be able to stay open, but on a very limited basis," said Bruno. "I am not going to be able to provide the services that this community and the surrounding communities have become accustomed to from the HYC."

He admitted that most of his time, and his remaining staff members' time, will be used to find new sources of revenue. The HYC receives other funding from the United Way and the Town of Oyster Bay.

"To do this type of stuff we are taking away time from what we are supposed to be doing," said Bruno. "We will just be trying to stay alive."

Bruno stated that the cuts are particularly frustrating because they had just moved into a larger facility so as to provide more services, and now those plans will have to be shelved indefinitely.

"This is probably one of the most cost effective ways of servicing communities," said Bruno of discretionary contracts. "They are hitting a large area, it is not just youth centers, drug and alcohol is being hit, mental health is being hit. It costs, through the programs that we run, 31 cents a day to provide services to these families and young people, and there is really no justification for these type of cuts.

Several of the programs at Central Nassau Guidance and Counseling Services will also be affected by the cuts. Loraine Millman, director of treatment at the counseling center, indicated that layoffs of certified social workers will be inevitable, and subsequently, the quality of service and volume of patients would greatly be diminished.

"It seems like he [Gulotta] is trying to balance his budget on the backs of the poor and disenfranchised," said Millman. "The people we serve are probably not even registered to vote."

In a short interview with Nassau County Legislator Judy Jacobs, she sympathized with the not-for-profit organizations affected by the budget cuts.

"I am very upset about the Hicksville Youth Council. I have attended meetings with them and have been helping them. I just feel terrible," said Jacobs. "This whole thing is just unacceptable for everybody. We are devoting ourselves to trying to see what we can do to change business as usual, but we are going to need some time and I know that these agencies do not have that time."

Jacobs, who will lead the majority in the new legislature, further stated that although the slashed funding appears to be a part of the county executive's plan to balance the budget, it is not inconceivable they will be partially or fully restored in the future.

"I think it is a little more realistic than many might think," said Jacobs. "Because if we can start getting the fiscal house in order and start finding out where the waste is going on we might be able to do something."