FREEDOM The Freedom Public Library, faced with tougher state and county regulations and no funding from the borough, will have to close its doors by the middle of December after 6Oyears of operation.
Librarian Frances Ambrose said the library will close Dec. 18. Ambrose. who has been with the library for 31 years, believes that the county will take control of the facility and turn it into a reading room, which will be open two days a week.
Ambrose said the decision to close the library, which opened Jan. 24, 1939, was made by its board Monday.
The state standards are the problem, according to Frances Ambrose. New regulations handed down by Gov. Tom Ridge are requiring there be two employees in a library for 35 hours a week, 50 weeks a year. These new regulations will bring Freedom's library budget to $38,634 annually. Frances Ambrose, the only full-time employee at Freedom Public Library, said the library doesn't have that type of money.
She said the library sought out help from Freedom Council to no avail. In fact, Freedom officials voted not to allocate any funds to the library for next year. Normally, council gives the library about $3,600 a year.
"The library would have been 61 years
old in January," Frances Ambrose said, "A lot of people
put time and effort into trying to keep the library going. People
like to know they have a library in their community. I wish borough
officials had thought it was more important to keep it open."
Freedom Council President Rocco Bovalino, who has served on the library board in the past sympathizes with the library. However, Bovalino said the borough can't afford to give what the library needs to stay open. He said the new funding formula would have the state putting in about $7,979 and the county giving about $1,517 to the library. That would leave about $29.138 of local funding. Bovalino estimates that out of that local funding. the borough would have had to contribute about $20.000 annually.
"We can't afford to spend that much to keep the library going,"he said.
Council voted in October not to put the library in its tentative $370,318 budget for the year 2000. Bovalino. who voted to fund the library, said the final budget could see some type of library.
"I think council will come around full circle." Bovalino said. "in small towns. libraries are the only remaining culture. If you take that away, what do you have left? There have been a lot of dedicated people over the years who have maintained the library."
Alicia Duris of Industry has been working at the Freedom Library since this summer. Her last day on the job will be Nov. 13. Duris is less upset about the loss of her job than she is about the possible loss of the borough library.
"Libraries represent an opportunity for Freedom - the freedom to learn." she said.