Stanton Seeks Help to Fund Library

The city doesn’t have enough money to cover the county’s trim of $90,000 from the Stanton library’s budget, but city officials hope to help find funds from community groups.

“At this point in time, there is not much the city can do to help out,” said Councilman Harry Dotson. “But the library is important to the community, so we need to help them out.”

The Stanton branch was hard hit by the county’s decision to cut the budget for all county libraries from $20 million to $17 million. To make up the difference, the Stanton library is considering reducing its days of operation from five to three.

The Stanton branch is home to one of Orange County’s most extensive collections of books in Spanish. Dotson said the council will try to appeal to community groups who wish to keep that collection open to the public.

“A lot of those books are children’s books,” said Dotson, “and I am sure there are groups around who want to encourage children to read. But we need to do some research, especially to find out if there are Hispanic groups who might help out.”

Dotson also said the council may ask the Kingsmen, a local drum and bugle corps that runs a bingo game in Stanton, to contribute part of their bingo proceeds.

Earlier this month, the Kingsmen received permission to hold bingo more than once a week on the condition they would donate part of their earnings to other groups in the community.