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For more than a year, officials with the Mental Health Association in Cattaraugus County have contemplated how to keep the doors of their agency open while dealing with a $70,000 budget cut.

They found that immediate relief could be offered to the strained finances by moving to a smaller, more affordable location on North Union Street. On July 1, the agency will open its doors to the community at 123 N. Union St., a few blocks away from its current location at 502 N. Union St. The telephone number and services will remain the same.

“We just couldn’t afford the space anymore … and we’ve cut our rent by more than half,” said Joann McAndrew, director of the Mental Health Association. “We had to look at cutting costs. We had cut our staff down to the bare minimum to still be able to provide the services.

“We also scrimped and saved supplies, but we lost $70,000 out of a $400,000 budget,” she said. “It was a big chunk out of our operating expenses so we didn’t have anywhere else to cut.”

She said when the lease expired at the current location, they decided to move to the office in a building owned by Larry Herbst that had housed Jane’s department store years ago.

“We wanted to make the relocation as positive as possible, and this place seemed to fit the bill,” Ms. McAndrew said. “We’re downtown and it’s a nice setup. It’s a little less space, but we have the opportunity to expand if funding isn’t as dire as it is right now.”

The agency could expand its operations to second-floor and basement space, as well as share space with an adjoining karate studio.

Ms. McAndrew said mental-health agencies are currently facing a crisis situation if the state budget is not passed in the next several weeks, or if mental-health funding is not included in the state’s extender bill.

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