Proposed county budget cuts that would affect various family services has a local nonprofit director concerned.

Maryanne Law, executive director of the Parenting Resource Center in Austin, is hoping the county board on Tuesday decides not to cut $4,000 in family-based services, $10,000 to Crisis Nursery services, and another $10,000 to the Michael H. Seibel Family Visitation Center — all of which are on the table as Mower County deals with more than $500,000 in unallotments from Gov. Tim Pawlenty.

“We have worked very hard as a community to develop this system,” Law said. “Why would you cripple that?”

Law said family-based services and the Crisis Nursery are both valuable and cost effective.

Family-based services money covers cases of court ordered or social worker referred parenting education, which is currently a regular part of every case plan when trying to reunite troubled families.

The Crisis Nursery gives parents struggling with any number of hardships the option to utilize emergency child care for up to 72 hours.

Neither service is mandated by the state, but Law said both are “preventative,” and keep future costs and needs — such as foster care — down.

“If we can get families to access the services, kids can stay in their homes or get back in their homes,” she said, adding that keeping just one child out of foster care for six months would make up for the Crisis Nursery contract alone.

The Seibel Center, on the other hand, provides a safe place for families to visit with or exchange children in situations involving domestic abuse and risk factors that relate to child protection — which can include a parent’s substance abuse, mental illness or sexual abuse.

Just a year old, the center has numerous play areas for supervised visits and secure hallways if a child is going from one parent to another.

Without the $10,000 county contract, supervised visits in child protection cases would occur in a plain Department of Human Services conference room, Law said.

In the last year, there were 243 child protection supervised visits.

Though this doesn’t cover all possible visits at the Seibel center — some cases are paid for by federal dollars — the reduction would still have an adverse effect on already stressed county social workers and staffing stability at the center, Law said.

Mower County Attorney Kristen Nelsen praised the center at a Tuesday board meeting.

She said a week doesn’t go by without a referral and that the center is a good, safe option for families.

“It takes away one more chance for the abuser to have control,” Nelsen said.

Mower County Human Services Director Julie Stevermer also said she supports the Seibel center and the other services at-risk of being cut. However, she said she knows hard decisions have to be made.

“I support preventative programs, but I have to be fiscally responsible,” she said.

She said the services were put forward as recommended cuts because they were simply the only nonmandated options.

“We don’t have a choice,” Stevermer said. “We have to balance our budget.”

She said she agreed with Law that preventative services generally reduce the county’s future burden and costs, but said it’s unclear to what extent.

Stevermer said she doesn’t know what to expect when the county board finalizes cuts Tuesday.

“Would I like to keep the programs? Yes, I would,” she said. “We’ll find out.”