Library Backers Firm on Four-Day Schedule

City officials and volunteer fund-raisers are adamant that the Villa Park branch library remain open at least four days a week, Mayor Joseph S. Barsa said Tuesday.

At a special study session Monday night, the City Council discussed the Orange County library system’s financial crunch, which has left the Villa Park branch with only enough money to operate two days a week.

But for the past two years, the city has kept the library branch open two additional days a week with donated funds. Barsa and other council members said the goal is to continue doing so.

“We asked the Friends of the Villa Park Library if they would continue fund-raising to sustain the branch for a couple of more years,” Barsa said. “They basically said they are committed to doing that.”

The city’s annual budget includes funds to guarantee the two additional library days a week. But so far, the Friends of the Villa Park Library have raised enough private money to cover all the costs, City Manager Fred Maley said.

The mayor said in an interview Tuesday, however, that a permanent solution must be found. He said he has written Gov. Pete Wilson urging action to restore library funds that were lost during a statewide cutback.

Maley said a new library system formula for branch libraries means that Villa Park may lose even more in the future.