Topeka ? A Lawrence agency that provides Kansas’ only statewide toll-free suicide-prevention hotline fell victim to Gov. Bill Graves’ veto pen on Friday.

Graves turned loose a batch of last-minute vetoes just after the ceremonial adjournment of the Legislature, meaning that departing lawmakers had no chance to override the governor.

Among the items vetoed: a $35,000 grant to Lawrence-based Headquarters Counseling Center. Graves spiked the grant, saying it had been approved by lawmakers for an “unstated or unknown reason.”

That’s a peculiar rationale for undoing the grant, said Marcia Epstein, director of Headquarters, 1419 Mass.

Epstein said she had spoken personally with Graves in early May about the center, and later followed up with a detailed letter telling him about how the grant money would be used.

“I am really taken aback. This is very disappointing news,” Epstein said.

The center provides the only statewide toll-free suicide-prevention hot line in Kansas.

In her May 23 letter to Graves, Epstein said the $35,000 would provide the partial salary of two clinical staff members for training and supervision of volunteers who work on the suicide-prevention hot line.

“And we can assure you that we work very carefully to maximize the benefits from every dollar, which is supplemented by nearly 17,000 hours per year from our carefully screened and trained volunteers,” she wrote Graves.

Epstein met with Graves on May 1 when he signed a proclamation in

recognition of National Suicide Prevention Week.

When Epstein told Graves about Headquarters’ work, “he expressed pride and pleasure that we were impacting people,” Epstein said.

But in his veto message, Graves said the grant had not received enough scrutiny from the Legislature.

“In short, the Legislature appears to have awarded a noncompetitive grant for an unstated or unknown reason. Although the efforts of this center may be worthy of funding, this is not the legitimate means of evaluating or assessing this issue,” Graves wrote.

The line-item veto was contained in a batch of vetoes by Graves. Lawmakers will have no chance to override any of the late vetoes because Graves completed his action after the Legislature officially ended the 2002 legislative session Friday.

“There is no way you can justify this veto,” said House Minority Leader Jim Garner, D-Coffeyville.

Without the $35,000, Epstein said the center would have to look for other sources of funding.

“This really puts the heat on us,” she said. The center has an annual operating budget of about $200,000 per year, she said.