Following months of cuts to its finances, South Central Community Action Partnerships (SCCAP) will have to combine with another community action partnership in order to remain afloat.

&uot;I’d fight this if I thought there was any way to turn this around,&uot; Director Collette Turcotte said. The group offers interpreters, advice, classes, financial support and shelter to the poor and Spanish-speaking community. Turcotte said services won’t be cut, but the capacity will be much lower.

&uot;The lines sometimes go out the door, so now they’ll get longer or people will stop coming,&uot; she said. Often the lines are made up of people in financial trouble wanting to know what their options are, she said.

Turcotte said the merge isn’t the answer to all the agency’s problems. The nearby multi-county CAPs that SCCAP may merge with have also seen cuts, and won’t have any money to offer her group. But their size also makes them able to weather financial storms.

She said the board of directors hasn’t decided what it will do. She said keeping a building in Freeborn County is a priority, but decisions have not been made. It is also unclear whether she or members of her staff will have jobs after the merger. She and the board of directors must meet and talk with the two nearby CAPs.

About two thirds of South Central’s $300,000 2003-04 budget has been cut.

A $55,000 cut to its housing program has already led them to shut down their transitional housing program, which provides apartments with rent assistance. Their shelter almost closed in July, and now has enough funding to run until December, thanks to donations. But case work and counseling that helps people to become more self-sufficient has been cut to practically nothing. Some of the funding loss resulted from spending money they expected but did not get, as was the case with their housing program.

The recent budget woes started in February when the state removed $45,000 in funding that had already been allocated. In June, South Central, like all Minnesota CAPs, received a 53 percent cut from its funding that helped pay for operating costs and programs. For SCCAP that amounted to $36,000.

One group they may merge with is the Southeast Minnesota Citizen’s Action Council, a CAP of six counties. Its executive director, Bruce Hartert, said his organization has had to cut hours and personnel, but said if there’s a significant decrease in federal funding, he’ll have to cut back services. So far he said cuts have been on the backs of his employees.

He expects federal cuts given the climate in cutbacks currently in the country. He didn’t know whether his group would be able to absorb SCCAP.

Gary Hird, a managing attorney for Southern Minnesota Regional Legal Services, a group that works with the poor, said the funding loss is disappointing. He expects a merger with multi-county CAPs to affect Freeborn county negatively, since it will lose local control and won’t be able to make decisions that are always best for Freeborn County.

(Contact Tim Sturrock at tim.sturrock @albertleatribune.com or 379-3438.)