Mahoning library board feels money pinch

By Jon Moffett

The library must cut $840,000 from this year’s budget.

YOUNGSTOWN — To say Mahoning County’s libraries are in trouble wouldn’t be fiction.

The Public Library of Youngstown and Mahoning County is faced with a budget deficit of about $841,000. The library system’s executive committee met Tuesday to discuss money and the future of the library and its branches.

The library’s board of trustees has been working to balance the budget for the better part of this year. A decline in state funding has been a major reason for the shrinking revenue.

“There is a historic relationship between the state and localities,” said Carlton Sears, library director. “I think local government funding, relative to the state, is something that in general is under pressure. And we’re part of that.”

The library system had planned for an 11 percent decrease in funding from 2008, but now faces a 20 percent loss.

“If you compare what we’re now projecting at a 20 percent decrease of our main source of funding over what we received in 2008, it comes to close to $2 million that we’re trying to make up in this calendar year,” said Susan Merriman, fiscal officer.

“And up to this point, we have found ways to cover about $1.2 million of that. But we now have to come up with another $840,000, and the problem we have is that we’re running out of year,” she added.

Sears said he wants to make sure the libraries continue to offer the same quality of services they’re known for. Sacrificing hours or staff would be extreme options but must be considered.

“This is really hard because the thing is you want to maintain the balance that keeps a healthy library system,” he said. “And to maintain that balance of a healthy library system, you need an infrastructure that consists of people, the facilities that work and the collections. And at some point, you can’t maintain all of that with the funding levels that we have.”

The library had already made steps to help reduce the budget. But these moves were made before the additional funding cuts. The library has reduced its book budget and renegotiated its natural-gas contract, which saves about $68,000.

The committee discussed the possibilities of cutting hours or even closing the libraries in Austintown, Boardman and Poland that remain open on Sundays.

“You look at how many places you can operate,” Sears said. “The other choice is we can reduce hours open, staff, materials everywhere, but then you have less access.”

The worst-case scenario would be potentially closing one of the older and less-utilized branches. Many of the branches have received little attention since their original construction, Sears said. The main branch of the library, which was partially renovated in the mid-1990s, has some of the original piping from when it opened in 1910.

Closing a branch would be a last resort.

“I don’t think it ever is just one item,” Merriman said. “I think that it’s always going to be a combination of items. And certainly closing up the branch would realize the most saving, but it would also have the greatest impact negatively.”

Merriman added that although closing a branch would be difficult to do from a community standpoint, it may be the most financially sound option. And closing a branch would be difficult for the entire library system.

“Truly, closing a branch is going to be your best result, unfortunately,” she said. “It’s an issue of how much can you really do when your funding continues to shrink. And from a practical standpoint, no matter how much you don’t want to do that, sometimes you just don’t have a choice because the money just isn’t there.”

jmoffett@vindy.com