By DAN KEGLEY/Staff
Smyth-Bland Regional Library Director Pat Hatfield appealed to the county supervisors Tuesday for favorable consideration in upcoming preparation of the 2010-11 county budget.
Hatfield said patrons often speak to her of their pride in having a quality library and its services available to them. If funding is cut, she said, “we won’t be able to be a source of pride for the county.”
In particular, Hatfield sought Tuesday to preserve funding that permits the library to take circulated materials to local nursing homes.
She shared with the supervisors a letter from Sharon Buchanan, activities director at Francis Marion Manor, that spoke of a resident so physically drawn up that her chin is on her chest. She listens to an audio book each day made available by the library at the home. That, Hatfield, said, is “all the quality of life she has.”
The library director’s appearance before the supervisors came on the heels of the library system’s announced reductions in operating hours at Marion and Saltville and in its outreach program that serves nursing homes and senior citizens’ centers. Those cutbacks, effective April 1, are in response to losses of state funding.
Since 2007, the four libraries in the SBRL constellation have lost $73,450 to cuts in state aid, according to Hatfield. That loss has affected the libraries’ acquisition of books, newspapers, and magazines.
“The big thing that hit us last year in [former] Gov. Kaine’s budget was a cut in state funding of 7 percent,” Hatfield said. “We weathered the storm, thinking things would turn around.”
The SBRL trustees’ budget reduction plan includes the closing of the Marion library on Fridays and the loss of 16 hours per week at the Saltville branch. Five hours per week will be taken from the library’s outreach program.
dkegley@wythenews.com
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