Hours Cut After Library Fee Rejected : Funding: County facilities will have to shorten schedules unless cities offer subsidies. Lakewood and Lynwood are the notable exceptions.

Several county libraries in the Southeast area will curtail their hours sharply in October because city leaders failed to approve plans to increase funding through property fees.

Libraries in Norwalk, Bellflower, Hawaiian Gardens, Artesia and Montebello will probably cut back from four days a week to two unless they receive city subsidies, said Margaret Wong, assistant county library director.

Branches in Pico Rivera, Compton and La Mirada are expected to be cut from three days a week to two. Branches in Paramount and Artesia, which have been open only two days a week, should retain their current schedules.

Smaller branches may also be closed in some cities.

However, libraries in two cities that supported the fees--Lakewood and Lynwood--will probably open an additional day each week and be able to buy books, magazines and other items for the first time in more than a year, officials said.

City governments were given the option of joining a Los Angeles County supervisors’ plan to charge property owners a special assessment to supplement the ailing library budget. Owners of single-family homes and condominiums will pay $28.50, and apartment building owners will be charged $21 for each unit. The fee for businesses and industrial plants will be determined by the size of the property.

The fee will appear on November property tax bills in unincorporated areas and cities that approved it.

The supervisors drafted the plan to help offset a 50% drop in funding for the 89-library system during the last two years.

In Lakewood, which backed the tax, the Iacoboni Library could expand from 28 hours a week to 32 hours. The fee will allow the smaller George Nye Library in Lakewood to remain open, said Donna K. Walters, a Lakewood librarian.

Libraries in unincorporated county areas, such as South Whittier, Rancho Dominguez and Willowbrook, are expected to expand their hours.

The Alondra Library in Norwalk, which is funded by the city and county, is among the branches the county is considering closing. “Unless the city buys extra days, the Alondra Library will probably be closed permanently,” said Cathy M. Saldin, the library’s manager.

Regional libraries in Norwalk and Montebello will reduce their operating times from four days to two days a week. Regional libraries draw users from several nearby areas because they often have larger selections of books, magazines and videos than many city branches.

Marilee A. Marrero, the Norwalk Regional Library’s manager, said she has not met with county administrators to set new hours.

Marrero said Norwalk’s federal documents, which include U.S. Census materials, will not be affected by the reductions because they are placed there by the government. “The materials from the government continue to flow because we don’t have to pay for that part of the collection,” she said.

Full-time library staff in Norwalk will be deployed to other branches on days when the library is closed, a practice that has become common throughout the county in recent years, Wong said. She said some part-time workers will lose their jobs.

Norwalk City Manager Ernie Garcia said the city has allocated $36,000 this year for libraries, and officials hope that most of that money will be earmarked for keeping the Alondra branch open.

“We are not interested in closing (Alondra) or losing some of their services, but we certainly cannot afford to subsidize their program,” Garcia said.

Richard Leahy, Paramount’s deputy city manager, said the city has no plans to set aside city funds for its library. “The council decided not to take any action on this because it really is a county program,” Leahy said.

In Pico Rivera, the larger Pico Rivera Library will remain open two days a week, but the smaller Rivera Library may be closed indefinitely.

Popular books, periodicals and videotapes based in libraries with shorter hours may be shifted to other centers so the public can have more access to them, said Sandra Reuben, county library director.

Long Beach, Cerritos, Downey and other cities with their own library systems are unaffected.