Archbold Library Cuts Hours

Effective Monday, July 6, the Archbold Community Library will close on Fridays and Wednesday evenings to save money.

Money has become critical, as Ted Strickland, Ohio governor, has proposed cutting library funding by 30%, on top of an earlier 20% cut.

Key to the situation is the state budget bill. The Ohio General Assembly (house and senate) had to pass a budget bill by yesterday, Tuesday, June 30.

But the Republican-controlled Senate and the Democrat controlled House of Representatives could not reach agreement. The budget bill went to a six-member conference committee, but even there, the sides could not agree.

Interim Budget

Kim Wheeler, legislative aid to Steve Buehrer, state senator (R-Delta), said the two sides decided to pass an interim budget, extending state spending authority for seven days.

Wheeler said the Senate passed the interim bill Monday; the House was to consider the bill, and was expected to pass it, on Tuesday.

Library Board

In a special meeting of the Archbold Library Board Monday, June 29, members opted to approve closing on Friday and Wednesday evenings.

Additionally, the library was scheduled to open on Sundays in the fall. The board voted to remain closed on Sundays.

The cuts, along with others, are expected to cut library spending to about $353,000.

Joyce Klingelsmith, library director, told the board under the worst-case scenario, she anticipates revenue will be roughly $359,000.

That leaves the library with a $6,000 carryover. But that creates a problem, because the library doesn't receive money from the first county property tax disbursement until March.

She estimates the library will need about $40,000 to carry it through the first two months of 2010, until the property tax check arrives.

As a form of insurance against a carryover shortfall, the board opted not to reinvest a certificate of deposit designated for furniture and equipment.

The money will be moved to a primary account, where it can be accessed.

Klingelsmith said $20,137 could be taken from the certifi- cate. That would leave $78,000 in the furniture and equipment fund.

Materials

Klingelsmith said she had been working for "the better part of a week, deciding where savings could come from with the least amount of pain."

She plans to cut $11,000 to $14,000 from the materials budget.

"The savings will not come just from (cutting) staff (hours)," she said.

She said the materials budget "is about as low as we can go" and still offer people a reasonable expectation of finding something new at the library.

"Right now, we're just buying best-sellers," she said.

One problem she ran into was by closing the library extra hours, full-time staff would drop to 24 hours a week. To obtain health insurance through the library, workers must work 25 hours a week.

Four workers would be impacted by a health insurance loss.

Jed Grisez, board member, said he didn't think the cutoff was 25 hours. Klingelsmith said she would check.

To compensate, Klingelsmith said workers will take a halfhour lunch break instead of an hour.

That would give employees enough hours to qualify for health insurance, but would cost the library about $2,000.

The board discussed asking employees of retirement age to take voluntary retirement.

Board members discussed the fact that no one knows exactly what's in the future, as the final version of the state budget has not passed, and no one knows whether the economy will turn around soon.

"We will continue to evaluate the financial situation," Klingelsmith said.

John Bamonte, board member, was absent. Votes on the cost-cutting measures were unanimous.- David Pugh