By CRAIG FREILICH

The free literacy program in St. Lawrence County was shut down Monday with no advance notice and little explanation, but today alternatives are being investigated.

The former Literacy of Northern New York Program Director for St. Lawrence County Maria Morrison said it was “quite a shock” when the Watertown-based LNNY director arrived at her office in the Potsdam Public Library yesterday morning to tell her that there was no more money for the St. Lawrence County operation and that it was closed as of that moment.

“She said there was no longer funding for the St. Lawrence County program,” Morrison said.

“My understanding is that some grants that had come through in the past had not come through this time,” she said.

“The Board of Directors of Literacy of Northern NY recently decided to close its St. Lawrence County office due to financial reasons,” said a statement early this afternoon from Literacy of Northern New York, sent by the program’s director, Cecilia Brock.

Brock was not available for interviews today, her office said.

“Expenditures for our St. Lawrence program exceeded revenue by more than $13,000 last fiscal year. LNNY is no longer able to operate the program at a loss. The decision was a difficult one to make,” the statement said.

There was no indication why the closure was so abrupt, with no advance notice.

Morrison believes the decision was made in Watertown perhaps two weeks ago.

She said she has raised $1,000 in the last two weeks, and if she had had any idea the Watertown administrators were considering cutting the St. Lawrence County program off, she might have had a chance to prepare an argument for continuation of the program.

“It doesn’t seem possible that there’s no funding for the program,” said Bobby Gordon, who ran the county’s Literacy Volunteers program for more than 10 years before Morrison came in.

“There is definitely such a need here,” she said.

Morrison, who is now out of a job, was paid between $10 and $15 an hour for 24 hours of work a week, but spent much longer than that training tutors, recruiting volunteers and coordinating their time with their clients, which they call “learners,” testing applicants, analyzing test results to set up appropriate programs for tutors, “pre-testing, post-testing, keeping up to date” on materials and practices, and doing the reports the Watertown office expected, she said.

She said now that the initial shock has diminished, she is looking for alternatives to keep the 45 to 50 trained volunteer tutors and 50 to 55 learners at work.

“The tutors I’ve been in touch with have asked, ‘Can I still work with my learner?’ Of course they can.”

“If we can help those learners achieve their goals, I don’t want to leave them. I expect most tutors will continue to work with them” because of their dedication and the relationships they form with the learners,” Morrison said.

She said that the Potsdam Library, which gave her an office for free, “is incredibly supportive.”

She and the library are looking into a program called Pro Literacy and other alternatives to continue helping people who want to improve themselves .

“I cannot believe there’s no money out there to support this program,” Morrison said.