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Library asks Mahoning Township for financial aid
By MARY GRZEBIENIAK
HILLSVILLE, Pa.
Bessemer’s F.D. Campbell Memorial Library will have to wait at least until 2011 for any financial help from Mahoning Township.
Two representatives from the 90-year-old library came to the township supervisors’ meeting Tuesday to ask the township to begin making an annual donation.
Library board president Bill Margraf and librarydirector Lorena Sears attended.
Margraf explained that the library’s service area is considered Mahoning and North Beaver townships and Bessemer Borough, where it has 99,369 and 502 cardholders, respectively.
He said state funding is not available to the library until it reaches a local contribution level of $5 per resident of the serving area. In this case, that figure would be $43,205 based on the 8,641 residents of those three communities.
But Margraf said that last year, the library received only $30,932 from local sources, down $12,000 from 2008 and not enough to meet the state requirement. This, he said, left some doubt as to whether the state would give the library any money in the next round of funding, but he said that the library has received a waiver and is now in good standing. However the 2010 local funding is still $10,000 short of what is required. He said the staff and library board are trying to raise money and a recent fund-raising letter was sent out to library patrons. He listed local 2009 sources of funding as the Lawrence County Federated System, which provided $22,771, $1,024 in fund-raising donations and $1,813 in library generated and miscellaneous funds.
He said a major benefactor was lost when the Essroc cement company closed early in 2009, leaving the library’s very location in jeopardy. The library is located in a building owned by Essroc, and the company has not yet made a decision about the building’s future.
Margraf asked that the township consider providing a donation for the library in the annual budget.
Supervisor chairman Vito Yeropoli said such a donation is impossible this year because of the township’s tight finances, but he agreed to consider the possibility for next year.
Also on Tuesday:
Mahoning Township Neighborhood Watch announced that October is “Mahoning Township Clunker Clearance Month.” They remind residents that they face a $300 fine and 30 days in jail for failure to get rid of junk cars and suggested calling local towing companies on a list available at the township to have them hauled. After October, the township will begin enforcing the ordinance.
Yeropoli reported that stop signs have been ordered for a dangerous intersection of Main Street with a BFI haul road and they will be installed as soon as they are delivered.
Supervisors listened to complaints about last winter’s snow plowing, and Yeropoli told residents to call the township building while plows are out to report roads which need to be plowed.