Less than a month after city administrators in Colton, California, abruptly shuttered both public libraries as part of an effort to close a $5-million budget gap, Colton Public Library is back in business. The December 1 reopening of the main library came just two weeks after some 100 area residents, including library board President Pete Carrasco, voiced their displeasure to the City Council about the sudden November 12 closure of the libraries and the dismissal of all 17 library staff members. The city’s only branch was slated to reopen December 3.
National and state library leaders also spoke out. American Library Association President Camila Alire issued a statement November 17 that encouraged area library boosters to make their feelings known to city officials. The next day, California Library Association President Kim Bui-Burton emphasized that, notwithstanding the limited array of “painful choices” left to officials in Colton and throughout the state due to “the extraordinarily difficult financial situation . . . cutting library support should not be one of these choices.”
“The opening of the libraries is certainly a step in the right direction for this community,” an elated Carrasco told American Libraries, explaining that officials established six-day-a-week service by scheduling hours at the main facility on Mondays, Wednesdays, Fridays, and Saturdays, and at the Luque branch on Tuesdays and Thursdays. Noting that one full-time and four part-time library workers were reinstated to staff the libraries and that volunteers may be recruited as well, Carrasco said, “What saddens me is that our library manager Ruth Martinez was not called back to handle the openings of the libraries.” He added that Martinez is nonetheless “in pretty good spirits” about the resumption of some service.
Although budget-makers did not disclose how much the limited library hours would cost Colton, Interim Deputy City Manager Bill Smith told American Libraries in mid-November that eliminating library service for FY2010 would save the city $500,000. He told AL December 2 that operating funds were freed up through “short-term budget adjustments,” namely the city “calling in some notes owed to the general fund.” Although Smith anticipated that the revenue would support limited library service until the end of FY2010, he emphasized that the evolving “financial situation of the city” would determine whether the library doors remained open.
At least one other Colton official was pursuing an alternate revenue stream: The San Bernardino County Sun reported November 18 that Council member Richard DeLaRosa had recommended reducing the hours of police officers’ workdays so, DeLaRosa said, “We can shift some manpower and transfer that savings to the libraries.”
