PLACENTIA : Cuts Force Elimination of Programs

Renee Griffith has been bringing her son Brenden to the library since he was 2 years old. Without fail, the boy attended every weekly story time as a toddler and a preschooler, and had been looking forward to the first-graders’ reading program.

But a cut of more than $300,000 from its 1993-94 budget has forced the Placentia Library District to cut back hours and staffing, and one casualty has been nearly all of the children’s programs, including the first-grade story hour.

The libraries’ books and materials budget also was cut from $125,000 to $30,000, barely enough to keep reference materials current.

“It is very upsetting to hear,” Renee Griffith said. “I was planning on putting my younger son in the toddler class this year and now I can’t do that.”

The Library Board of Directors recently approved a schedule that trims the operating hours from 58 hours to 36 effective Friday. The library will be open from noon to 8 p.m. Monday through Wednesday, 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Thursday and 1 to 5 p.m. Sunday. The library has been closed Fridays since June.

An eleventh-hour reprieve may allow the library to remain open on Saturdays.

Library Director Elizabeth Minter said a recent change in the way the county calculates how much library revenue will be shifted to other government entities will give the library $65,000 more this year than previously expected, enough to keep two employees who had been laid off.

The Library Board will vote tonight on a proposal to reinstate the employees and maintain the Saturday hours.

While several library patrons said the reduction in hours will make using the library less convenient, they were most concerned about the library’s inability to buy new books and replace worn out titles.

“The book budget will just cover reference materials,” Minter said. “We’re really going to be struggling.”

Library volunteer Andrew Chiu depends on the library’s resources for his schoolwork. When he begins his junior year at Sunny Hills High School next month, he expects to spend every afternoon at the library, doing research for class.

“What I have to research is very much up-to-date and if the reference materials are obsolete, they won’t help,” Chiu said.

Since July, 1992, staff and hours at the library have been cut several times. The library started the year with 27.5 positions and was open 64 hours a week. Four positions were eliminated in January through attrition and in June, anticipating a reduction in its budget for the upcoming year, four more were cut and Friday hours were eliminated.

Then in early August, the library issued layoff notices for six positions and cut hours to 36.