With Some Funds Restored, D.C.
Public Library Averts Cut in Hours
District of Columbia Public Library announced July 24 that it was rescinding a plan to reduce its hours through September 30 after Mayor Anthony A. Williams restored more than half of a threatened cut to its budget.
The board had planned to cut weekday library hours citywide and close all branches other than the central Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial Library on Saturdays through September. However, the mayor said July 23 that he had decided to reduce the planned $905,000 cut to $400,000. “The impact that [the reduced summer schedule] would have on libraries is too severe,” Carolyn N. Graham, deputy mayor for children, youth, and families, told the July 25 Washington Post.
The library plans to save the $400,000 by not filling vacant positions and cutting extra initiatives. “I was relieved that we wouldn’t be faced with cutting services,” said board President Marie Aldridge, adding that the stripped-down budget will nonetheless present difficult choices. “We’re still down at bare bones,” she lamented. “We’re still in a situation of robbing Peter to pay Paul, still making do.”
Posted July 29, 2002.
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