James White doesn’t know the particulars about Douglas County’s impending budget crunch, but he knows a valuable program when he sees one.

That’s why the superintendent of Baldwin public schools recently offered his personal testimonial for the WRAP program, which puts mental-health professionals in public schools to help students manage during trying times.

The program prevented at least two suicides last year at Baldwin High School, White said.

“It’s really a fine program,” he told commissioners last week.

The Working to Recognize Alternative Possibilities program, administered by Bert Nash Community Mental Health Center, will be struggling for its own survival this summer, as grant financing dwindles and school officials cut costs to balance their own books.

Craig Weinaug, county administrator, expects Bert Nash to try to cover its lost revenue by asking the county for about $370,000 in the coming budget year. If approved, the payment would boost the county’s property-tax rate by nearly 2 percent.

No formal request has been made, Weinaug said, but he expects Bert Nash officials to have a proposal ready later this month.

County commissioners, after dealing with a light agenda Wednesday night, said they’d heard nothing but praise about the WRAP program  from school officials, teachers, parents or anyone else. But that doesn’t mean they want to pay for what they consider to be a state program.

Commissioner Charles Jones said he would entertain a request for a tax increase from Bert Nash only because it might help the county save costs in the future, by keeping people out of the legal system.

“It might be a good investment,” he said. “But you don’t want to do anything to enable (legislators’) irresponsibility.”

Jere McElhaney, commission chairman, said any increase in financing for Bert Nash would have to come at the expense of other county programs. Those decisions will come later this summer.

Weinaug already has started compiling information for his proposed 2003 budget, and formal hearings with commissioners start July 1.

“We’re not going to raise taxes,” McElhaney said. “We’ve got to draw the line somewhere, and you have to live within your means.”

In formal action Wednesday, commissioners:

 Approved a plat for final plat for Hidden Hill Addition at the northeast corner of East 1264 and North 935 roads.

 Proclaimed Sunday through May 19 “Historic Preservation Week.”