Cuts will be spread across library system Not all cuts directed at Southwest Branch By Sarah Riley News-Chronicle Brown County Library System Director Pat La Violette said budget cuts to the library will be difficult to manage but they were done with all library customers in mind. All of the cuts proposed to County Executive Carol Kelso by the library were included in her budget proposal to the County Board, which La Violette called "disheartening." But the Library Board tried to deal with the cuts evenly throughout the county and didn't go as deep as it first thought it might have to. Rumors began this summer when several county supervisors held a meeting at the Southwest Branch Library that turned into a "save the library" rally. The library was not cut in the budget, but several staff positions were and the library system's overall materials budget is smaller. The West Side supervisors sent a communication to the Library Board asking that library hours be reduced throughout the system, not just at the Southwest Branch. "They just feel that somehow we need to treat them all the same," La Violette said. She said cutting hours of service at the libraries doesn't reach the $65,000 in cuts that need to be made and don't constitute a majority of the cuts. It's difficult for people to understand that a few hours here and there aren't deep enough, she said. One cut that will help reach Kelso's budget reduction goal is the Bookmoblie. Elimination of the service, which serves rural communities, will help reduce staff numbers and costs. The library could cut 12 people, equaling eight full-time positions. Seven of those positions are open from previous hiring freezes. The five layoffs are from the Central Library, the Bookmobile and the Southwest Branch. The cuts at the Central Library are positions that affect all of the branches, La Violette said. "When you have to take out 12 bodies ... the hurt is going to be shared all over," she said. For example, if the clerks aren't there to shelve books, the other libraries won't get their requests in a timely fashion. - In other Library Board news: The board was updated on the situation of the Wrightstown Branch. The county-owned library was essentially told to pay more for rent or vacate because the Village Board needed the space for its offices. Some County Board members suggested the branch be closed. About 30 residents gathered Oct. 7 to determine how to save the library. Carla Buboltz, superintendent of the Wrightstown School District and a member of the volunteer library committee, told the Library Board Friday that the Denmark State Bank and the owner of the former Dick's Foods space on Main Street have offered to help. She said she is telling the group of citizens interested in helping that they have to come up with a solution instead of dwelling on the problem. "One of the things that we have tried to do is come up with a solution instead of talking about the problem," Buboltz said. "We know fully well what we're faced with and we can either wine about it or move on." The library will stay in its space through the end of 2004, so the group has time to raise funds to keep a branch open. If it comes down to holding bake sales and penny drives, the citizens are prepared to do that, she added. Buboltz said she will also approach neighboring towns, like Rockland, who use the branch. "It really is a southern Brown County branch," she said. The group will meet again at 5:15 p.m. Nov. 3 and 18 at Wrightstown Elementary School, 315 High St. Library Board members expressed their support for keeping a Wrightstown branch.