Ventura Panel Will Vote on Library Closure : Finances: County official advises consolidating Wright facility into Foster if funds aren’t found to operate it full time.

Reflecting a continuing crisis in the county library system, the top librarian has recommended closing the only branch in the eastern half of Ventura if money cannot be raised to operate it full time.

As a result, the Ventura Library Board is expected to vote next week on whether to recommend consolidation of the popular H. P. Wright Library near Ventura College with the city’s main library downtown.

Dixie Adeniran, director of the county Library Services Agency, told the library board Wednesday night that if Ventura will not provide financial support for its libraries, she thinks it should shut down Wright and move all its books to the E. P. Foster Library.

The board backed away from an immediate decision, but will debate the issue at a special 7:30 p.m. meeting at the Wright library Wednesday. The board’s recommendation would be forwarded to the City Council for a final decision.

Operating the two libraries only 20 hours a week each--and sharing 10 staff members between them--”is just not tenable on a long-term basis,” Adeniran said in an interview Thursday. “It’s wearing our staff out, and it’s a great turnoff to people who come to the library, find the doors closed and just sort of give up on the library.” Some members of the council-appointed library board said they can tolerate the status quo no longer.

“Once people feel they are going to lose their library, they will do something,” Keith Burns, a local writer, told his fellow board members.

Currently, the 97,000-volume Wright library at 57 Day Road is open Mondays from 2 to 8 p.m., Wednesdays from noon to 6 p.m. and Saturdays from 1 to 5 p.m.

The 133,000-volume Foster facility at 651 E. Main St. is open Tuesdays from noon to 8 p.m., Thursdays from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. and Saturdays from 1 to 5 p.m.

Wright is far more popular with readers, circulating nearly 225,000 books a year, while Foster checks out 107,000.

During the meeting this week, Ventura Mayor Tom Buford urged the library board to take a stand on closing the Wright branch and force the issue before the public.

“(The City Council) will take the heat--that’s fine, as long as you give us something to support you on,” Buford told the seven-member board. “We will work with you to hold workshops, to get the word out and to give people a chance to participate.”

The city’s libraries are run by the county and financed by the county and state. But in the last few years, funds have been so meager that Ventura bibliophiles have gone begging to the city--so far to no avail.

City officials have said they do not want to take on the county’s burden, because that might encourage the county to cut back its support even further. Some other local cities have increased library hours by augmenting the county library budget.

On Thursday, patrons at the Foster library downtown said the pinch is obvious to anyone trying to check out a book.

“I’m very depressed about the whole situation,” said Alyca Moraga, 33, who takes her 4-year-old daughter, Markie, to the library every Thursday. The Moragas used to go to Wright because it is in their east end neighborhood. But it is not open on Thursdays, the day that best fits into the family’s schedule.

“We go through 10 books a week,” Moraga said. “Bookstores are fine, but if that’s all we had, we’d go broke.”

Moraga said she would not mind if the two libraries were consolidated. But other patrons found the idea unsettling.

“I’d be opposed,” said Rita Lofland, 64. “It would be hard on older people. People who live in the vicinity of H. P. Wright are going to have to truck on over (to Foster), and that’s not right.”

Lofland sighed. “I wish they’d cut from something else besides libraries.”

At Wednesday’s library board meeting, participants expressed the same thought. Librarians, board members and the audience all beseeched Buford and visiting Councilmen Steve Bennett and Gregory L. Carson to dig into city pockets for library funds. But Buford told the board not to expect city money.

“This is not a crisis,” he said. “This is the reality you will be facing for the foreseeable future. We’re certainly going to try to support you, but it’s not with additional monies.”

The room was silent for a few moments. Then Adeniran, the head county librarian, broke the quiet by saying that in that case she would recommend closing Wright until more funds became available.

That way the consolidated main library would have a $1.45-million annual budget, enough to stay open 40 hours a week.

Other City Council members took issue Thursday with Buford’s pronouncement. Councilman Gary Tuttle said he would support giving city money to libraries. Councilwoman Rosa Lee Measures said she, too, would consider the idea if she knew that the county would allow the city to spend its library money where it pleased.

“I don’t know where Tom made that unilateral decision,” Tuttle said. “Libraries are one of the most precious things citizens want from cities.”