LEBANON — The Abuse and Rape Crisis Shelter of Warren County sent the county a plea Aug. 15 for help in making up a sudden $50,000 drop in state funding.

        “I am seeking immediate assistance in the amount of $50,000 from the County Commission ... to continue uninterrupted services,” shelter executive director Janet Hoffman said in the letter.

        The commissioners responded Thursday — 2 1/2 months later — and the answer was no.

        The shelter learned in late July that its usual allotment for helping children who have been abused or witnessed abuse had been wiped out for the budget year that began July 1.

        To cope with the shortfall, Ms. Hoffman has laid off one of three employees for the children's program and reduced one to part-time. Day care services — which had been available to clients during job interviews or appointments — were eliminated.

        The shelter also has borrowed money from the United Way and made cuts in other programs, Ms. Hoffman said.

        Overall, the agency has a budget of about $450,000 and 13 employees for the shelter, rape crisis services, a crisis hot line, legal services, prevention education and batterers' intervention.

        The shelter is still counseling abused children, Ms. Hoffman said, but that could change next year: “If we don't get some funds, that will probably have to go, too.”

        Next year's financial picture might not be much rosier, given the slumping economy. Also, commissioners already have promised not to collect Warren's slice of the state property tax — the only county in Ohio to do so.

        “This is the first of many (state and federal) funding cuts that this county and all the counties in Ohio are going to be faced with,” Commissioner Pat South said. “We're going to have to figure out what we can afford to pay for and what we can't.”

        She also defended the delay in responding to the shelter's August request.

        “That's not an unusual length of time,” Mrs. South said. “And if it were of an urgent nature, we're only a phone call away.”

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