Supervisors Give Reprieve to Popular Library : Finances: The Avenue branch has 60 days to raise funds. But the county reduces hours at other facilities and cuts $400,000 from the Fire Department’s budget.

Ventura County supervisors on Tuesday temporarily saved the popular Ventura Avenue Library from closing, but they cut hours at four other libraries and slashed more than $400,000 from the Fire Department’s budget by limiting overtime pay and delaying purchase of new equipment.

The cuts were the first since the 1992-93 county budget was approved in August, but county officials say more severe reductions are certain because of the state budget crisis.

“We are talking about enormous cuts coming from the state,” Chief Administrative Officer Richard Wittenberg warned the board.

Beginning immediately, libraries in Oak View and El Rio will be open three days a week instead of four, and the library at Meiners Oaks will be open two days a week instead of three.

In addition, Friday and Saturday morning service will be eliminated at Port Hueneme Library, and the county’s Adult Literacy Program will be scaled back to help offset a $383,500 shortfall in the Library Department’s $8.4-million budget.

But the supervisors decided not to close the Avenue Library for 60 days, giving community leaders time to raise private funds to pay operating costs.

Ventura City Councilman Gary Tuttle said he was confident that arrangements can be made to provide a library in the Ventura Avenue area, one of the poorest sections of Ventura.

“Through little or no rent and community funding, we will be offering you a deal you cannot refuse,” Tuttle said.

He said the Boys & Girls Club of Ventura, Project Understanding, the Lions Club and Patagonia have offered to help. Tuttle said the library might be moved from a strip mall to a nearby vacant building owned by the Lions Club.

“We must be innovative and form a partnership,” Tuttle said. “Give us a chance to do just that. I think this could be a model for future county libraries.”

At the urging of Supervisor Susan K. Lacey, whose district includes the Ventura Avenue area, the board agreed to use $8,000 in reserve funds to keep the library open for two months.

“We have really had some good community support,” Lacey said. “We may be down to refurbishing a building before we’re through. It might not look like a traditional library, but it will function . . . as a free place for ideas, thoughts and study.”

The library--which costs $48,000 a year to operate though open only two days a week--had been targeted for closure partly because it is only about a mile from the E. P. Foster Library in downtown Ventura.

County Library Services Director Dixie D. Adeniran said county officials will work closely with community members to try to keep a library in the Ventura Avenue area. The supervisors asked for a progress report in 30 days.

About 40 Avenue Library supporters, including half a dozen Ventura Avenue youngsters, attended the supervisors’ meeting. And in a simultaneous show of support at the library, a dozen sign-carrying protesters said the county should keep the facility open.

Most of the protesters were homeless residents who live in the Ventura River bottom and frequent the library.

“I’m a reading fool,” said Mario Ramirez, 45, a homeless man who goes to the library every week. “When it’s raining, we also come here.”

The 20,000-volume library, which boasts one of the largest Spanish-language book collections in the county system, is also a place where children flock after school.

“Even though it is only open two days, it’s always used (when it’s open),” said Cindy De LaMotte, a seventh-grader at De Anza Middle School.

Oak View Library Manager Kit Willis, whose library will be open one less day a week, said she is thankful that her branch is still open.

“I was hoping that something would happen to save the day,” Willis said. “Even though we hate to lose a day, we understand that we have to give up something in this budget situation.”

The cuts made Tuesday are just the beginning, county officials said.

Faced with the worst fiscal outlook since the Great Depression, county officials said they fear that they could lose up to $40 million in state funding.

Although the cuts in the Fire Department, which has a $46-million budget, caused little immediate pain, a spokesman for the firefighters’ union said employees have been told that layoffs effective July 1 could be announced in April.

“It appears we are going to get through to July 1,” said Ken Maffei, president of the Ventura County Professional Firefighters Assn. “After that, I don’t know.”