When the Plainview Old Bethpage School District was analyzing this year's budget, cuts were made to keep costs down and one of those cuts was the funding for Plainview-Old Bethpage's Auxiliary Police.

The school district cut the $6,000 funding for the auxiliary police, which patrols the entire community including all of the schools 365 days a year.

According to Lance Alfieri, captain of Nassau County Auxiliary Police, he provided the school district with their budget listing where every dollar goes. "Every penny was accounted for," said Alfieri. "It was 100 percent for maintaining vehicles, buying equipment, uniforms, supplies, batteries for flashlights etc. We are all volunteers and we have no trips or installation dinners or anything like that."

According to Dr. Martin Brooks, superintendent of Plainview-Old Bethpage Central School District, "It was a hard cut. Plainview-Old Bethpage has enormous respect for what the auxiliary police do. It is a tough job to assess because it is hard to determine how much vandalism they prevent. When push came to shove, the board decided to cut our support for the auxiliary police rather than cutting staff and programs that directly affect our students."

The auxiliary police also patrols during the local running events, and when Mike Polansky, from the Greater Long Island Running Club and a member of the Plainview Old Bethpage Public Library Board of Trustees, heard about the school not supporting the auxiliary police, he decided something had to be done as he realized how valuable the services are to the community.

"I was more than a bit surprised when I learned that the school board had decided to remove from the School District's 2006-2007 budget the relatively small amount of money ($6,000) that the District had provided to the POB Auxiliary Police Unit annually for decades," said Polansky. "Although, strictly speaking, funding the auxiliary police may be beyond the charter of the library, as a concerned POB citizen, I felt that stretching our role a bit was certainly a no brainer if the alternative was to see the auxiliary police unit disband, so I brought the suggestion to the library board that we provide the funding to keep the Auxiliary Police Unit in existence and, of course, the rest of the library board agreed."

Plainview-Old Bethpage Library Director Gretchen Browne agreed with the board's decision to pick up the funding. "The auxiliary police are a great benefit to the community," said Browne.

According to Alfieri, the auxiliary police has patrolled the school grounds for over 40 years and, now that they have funding, will continue to do so. "Without the funding, that would leave the school district with zero security," said Alfieri. "We patrol every night of the year patrolling the school grounds and have for over 40 years. We went to the proposed school board public meeting for the budget and we stood up and voiced our distress about this. They had no other plan for security."

Alfieri said he was grateful for Polansky and the public library. "They were very gracious to pick up the $6,000 a year so we can continue to do what we have been doing since WWII. The auxiliary police is a very vital service," he said.

The auxiliary police doesn't just patrol the school district, but the entire community, including the railroad station, library, water district pumping facilities, shopping center, industrial parks, residential and commercial areas.

The auxiliary police is always looking for volunteers and is at an all time low. Those interested must be a resident of Nassau County, be over 18-years-old and not have a criminal record. They must also undergo a 22-week training course at the police academy to become an auxiliary police officer. Anyone interested should call the NCPD Community Safety Division at 573-7521 and ask for Officer Lori Levering.