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by Mountain Girl ~ November 23rd, 2009. Filed under: City Council, Community, Infrastructure.Rich Lord at the PG is reporting that a deal has been reached between elected officials and the Carnegie Library to address library closures, mergers and relocations.
Carnegie Library staff will recommend to their Board in December that Beechview, Hazelwood, Lawrenceville and West End branches stay open in 2010; that the Carrick and Knoxville branches not merge; and that the Mount Washington branch stay where it is instead of moving to Virginia Avenue.
This is pending, however, City Council’s coming up with $1M in public aid to assist the libraries with this endeavor. Some of the money may come from a fund designated for buying fuel, while the rest would be revenue from table games at the casino. A representative for the library said “A check would best” when asked what she expected from the city. While I applaud the effort to save the libraries in the short-term, I hope a plan for more sustainable funding will be put into place so that we’re not faced with this same problem next year and the year after that and so on and so on.
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December 1st, 2009 at 10:19 am
Council casts its final vote for 2010 library funding today, Tues., Dec.1.
With this ‘stop gap’ funding we have one year to continue urging our elected leaders at the city, county & state levels, as well as the library board’s members, to come up with a solution to long term, sustainable funding.
We are planning a downtown rally, on Friday, Dec. 11 in support of the libraries. Time & location t.b.a. On Monday, Dec. 14 the library board meets and will vote on whether to hold off on library closings.
For more information, email me: gtforouzan@gmail.com