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Enoch Pratt Plan Calls for Branch ClosingsFacing a tightening budget for 2002, Baltimore’s Enoch Pratt Free Library announced plans April 10 to close as many as 10 of its 26 branches over the next few years, five of them by the end of this summer. The targeted branches are scattered throughout the city and were chosen primarily on the basis of low usage, small size, and renovation costs. The five to be phased out this year will be determined at a June 13 board meeting after library officials have considered feedback from four public meetings in April, the Baltimore Sun reported April 11. Staff estimates that closing the five branches will save $1.1 million in operating costs per year. No layoffs are planned, only reduction through attrition. The proposal to close branches was first floated on March 7 in response to the cumulative impact of nearly $5.1 million in operating budget reductions since 1998. The first public meeting was held April 10 at the Northwood branch, where a group of nearly 100 gathered to express concerns. Ronald Owens, a past president of the Pratt’s Friends group, handed out postcards for people to send to Mayor Martin O’Malley urging him to maintain services at the current level. Library Director Carla Hayden told the crowd that rather than renovating branches that are essentially obsolete and too expensive to bring up to minimal standards, the library is looking at plans to build large regional libraries with state-of-the-art technology in each quadrant of the city. The first is an $8-million, 45,000-square-foot facility slated for Highlandtown in the southeast. Posted April 16, 2001. |
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