ORANGE : Library Closes Due to Funding Shortage
The Friendly Stop, a library branch established in the city’s Cypress Barrio to reach out to the area’s Latino teen-agers, closed Thursday as the result of a temporary funding shortage.
The library has received a Community Development Block Grant of $34,000 for fiscal 1993-94 from the federal government.
But city officials are not expected to have the money in hand until mid-August, leaving the library without operating funds.
Anthony Garcia, the branch supervisor, said the earliest the library could reopen would be July 13, when the County Board of Supervisors is scheduled to vote on giving the Friendly Stop $1,500 in emergency funds.
“We’re hoping to help the library stay open,” said Kathi Crowley, a spokeswoman for Supervisor William G. Steiner, whose office is coordinating efforts to aid the small branch. “Our instinct is that the money will be approved by the board.”
The Friendly Stop, at 615-A N. Lemon St., offers books in both English and Spanish, homework assistance and advice about sex, drugs, jobs, gangs and health to its mostly teen-age patrons.
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