Ventura OKs Funding Aid for 2 Libraries

Ventura’s two largest libraries--staffed at a minimum, shuttered half the week--will receive a $145,000 boost from city coffers starting in January, council members decided Monday.

Responding to intensifying pressure from residents, the council voted 5 to 1 to reach into city reserves so that downtown’s E.P. Foster and mid-town’s H.P. Wright can stay open longer each week.

The decision brought cheers of relief from the book lovers in the audience, many of whom have counted on the extra money since the council’s finance committee recommended the expenditure earlier this month.

“The council did well tonight,” said Betty Black, a retired librarian who lives in Ventura. “Every little bit helps, and this is a step in the right direction, but this isn’t the end. This isn’t where we want to stop.”

But the vote was not unanimous, and Mayor Tom Buford warned that Ventura was locking itself into an expenditure that residents would not let be shrugged off in the coming years. Councilman Jack Tingstrom was absent.

“If the city is going to participate as a partner in the library system, we ought to go into it knowing what we are getting into, knowing what we will be spending, and knowing what will be our responsibility,” Buford said.

The libraries are now funded by the county through property taxes. With the extra city money, the branches will stay open a total of 13 more hours a week between January and August. Wright library will also receive an automatic check-out machine, further reducing staffing needs at the branch.

Residents of all ages came out Monday night to persuade the council to invest in its libraries.

“If we kids don’t have libraries, then we can’t do the reports required,” said 11-year-old Shawn Fields. “And if we can’t do the reports required, then we’ll get an F or an incomplete. “And if we’re get an F or an incomplete, it’ll be your fault,” the fifth-grader said, looking squarely at the council.

The Wright and Foster libraries currently operate on a patchwork of schedules, one closing as the other opens for a total of 36 hours each week. A staff of 10 employees shuttles between the two facilities.

Even with the $145,000 boost, many city and library officials admitted that Monday’s vote would purchase only temporary peace of mind.

“This is something that buys us some time, opens up our libraries, so we can look at long-range solutions,” Councilman Gregory L. Carson said.

In the long term, they said, the city must find a new home to house its entire library collection.

One site mentioned repeatedly at the finance committee meeting is a vacant furniture store at the Buenaventura Mall. Carson, however, said the building will need extensive and costly retrofitting work.

Librarians and residents have also talked about pursuing a ballot measure next year assessing landowners $10 to $30 for each parcel, to ensure permanent and ample funding for the local libraries. Council members said Monday that the city staff should look into the feasibility of this idea.

The finance committee considered the issue because the Library Board, a city advisory committee, asked the city last month to provide the funding.

The board has also come under increasing pressure from library administrators and residents to do something about the situation at Foster and Wright. Some board members wanted to shut down Wright, at least temporarily, and move all its books to Foster so it could operate 40 hours a week.

That proposal, however, met with fierce resistance from other board members as well as many eastside residents, and it was shelved.

Wright is far more popular with readers than is Foster, circulating nearly 225,000 books a year to Foster’s 107,000.

But Foster is the county’s main reference library, with a collection of 133,000 volumes. Wright, by contrast, has only 97,000 books.

Wright is now open Mondays from 2 to 8 p.m., Wednesdays from noon to 6 p.m. and Saturdays from 1 to 5 p.m. Foster 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.

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A recent library fund-raising drive raised $7,677 from residents, allowing Wright, beginning in January, to stay open two hours later on Wednesday and Foster to begin operating two hours earlier on Saturday.

The fund-raising efforts also paid for the Avenue Library, the city’s smallest branch, to open at 1 p.m. instead of 2 p.m. on Mondays. The Avenue branch on Ventura Avenue nearly closed two years ago, but a city telethon collected enough money to keep it open until June, 1996.