Orange County Commissioner Alice Gordon says the Orange County Board of Commissioners wants to keep the Carrboro and Cedar Grove branch libraries open.

The board held a budget work session last night. It did not vote and nothing is official, but Gordon said: "The outlook is good for keeping those libraries. I think most, if not all of us, want to do that."

The proposed county budget calls for closing the Carrboro and Cedar Grove libraries and transferring staff to the new main county library opening in Hillsborough this fall. The Carrboro Cybrary in the Century Center downtown, with its six computer stations and small reading area, would stay open.

Closing the Carrboro and Cedar Grove branches would save $45,373 in the county manager's proposed $177.6 million budget.

The county-run libraries are separate from the Chapel Hill Public Library, which is run by the town of Chapel Hill. The commissioners and the town boards of Chapel Hill, Carrboro and Hillsborough are scheduled to talk about libraries this fall. Chapel Hill has been concerned about out-of-town residents using its library with no increase in the county's contribution and and has floated the idea of charging a fee. Some have said closing the Carrboro library would send even more non-Chapel Hill residents to that library, making a fee more likely.

Gordon said it only makes sense to keep the two county library branches open until that discussion takes place.

"I don't think we're at the point where we need to close libraries," she said. "I think the will is there to keep the libraries open."         

What a difference an outcry makes.

Orange County announced this morning that hours of operation for all Orange County Public Libraries will be reinstated beginning July 28. The Chapel Hill Public Library, one of nine municipal libraries in the state, was not affected by the cuts. 

County and Library management took another look at the departmental budget and identified certain purchases to be delayed until next fiscal year and a reduction in monies budgeted for inventory replacement.  These adjustments will generate funds sufficient to cover the temporary personnel costs for hours of operation at the Main Library and its branches. 

You still won't be able to check out a book or DVD in the Carrboro Branch Library on Fridays. The library, located in McDougle Middle School, was not open Fridays to begin with. But the regular hours will return July 28: Monday-Thursday, 3:30 to 8 p.m.; Saturday, 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. and Sunday, 1 to 5 p.m.

For more information go to the Orange County Library website www.co.orange.nc.us/library/orange/ or call (919) 245-2525.
 
 

Barry Jacobs, chairman of the Orange County Board of Commissioners, has responded to a letter from Carrboro Mayor Mark Chilton about recent cuts to the Carrboro Branch Library. Read his letter below and the mayor's letter below that.

Dear Mr. Mayor:

Thank you for your letter, and for sharing your concerns.

As you noted, and as was doubtless true for your board, the commissioners did our best to suppress the rate of increase in the property tax. We cut $5 million from the manager's proposed budget, most by delaying or deferring costs associated with county facilities and operations.

Our efforts included significant reductions in the use of temporary labor, which had become a mechanism by which department heads indirectly filled positions that were not formally funded by the Board of County Commissioners. We did convert individuals who were perpetual temporary employees filling already-identified positions to permanent employees, thereby extending benefits and ending an unfair situation.

Reductions in temporary funding, which were made in the final days of the budget process, were across-the-board but had more impact on some departments than others -- public transportation, libraries, and recreation come to mind. The commissisoners made adjustments to accommodate rising service demands facing OPT. We did not hear concerns raised by staff about impacts on library services.

My understanding is that all three branch libraries -- McDougle, the Cybrary, and Cedar Grove -- experienced nearly identical reductions in temporary staff, and therefore in the ability to remain open.

I will try to get an answer as to why the cuts were not more evenly distributed to include the central library. I understand that the county manager also is looking into the possibility of using some of the remaining temporary monies to augment library services. Library patronage is highest in summer and, as you doubtless recognize, access to libraries is particularly valued during bad economic times, given the entertainment, educational, community, and air-conditioning resources they provide.

Thank you for your leadership in trying to resolve differences amicably, and to address the fiscal, historical, and jurisdictional difficulties and prejudices that continue to complicate the provision of excellent library services in Carrboro and throughout the county.

Barry Jacobs

 
MAYOR CHILTON'S LETTER

Dear Mr. Chairman;
 
First let me say thank you for exercising the discipline necessary to limit this year's County tax increase.  As difficult as the budget year has been for our local governments, it has been even harder for many local families.

That said, I am concerned about the cuts to library service in Carrboro.  It seems that the cuts to the Carrboro Branch hours (which were already quite limited) are a good deal more drastic than the cuts to the main library.  This seems unfair given that many more Orange County residents live near the Carrboro branch than the main library and given that public transit access to the Carrboro Branch is much better than access to teh main library.

Could you or the county staff explain on what basis this decision was made?

Sincerely;

Mark Chilton
Mayor of Carrboro

Orange County Commissioner Mike Nelson says the county board had no
prior warning of the cuts made last week to the Carrboro Branch
Library.

"You know when we found out?" Nelson said a few minutes ago. "We found out when the press release went out last week."

The cuts in the commissioners' former town (Nelson was a mayor and
alderman of Carrboro) were especially surprising because Nelson had
asked the county manager at a meeting thi spring when the commissioners
would be talking about library services. The answer was October.

And one of the things the commissioners were going to talk about was
the library task force's recommendation that the county increase
services in the southwest part of the county -- the area served by the
Carrboro Branch -- not decrease them.