Felton Library may be threatened

MONDAY UPDATE:
The Felton Library could be closed under a set of scenarios disclosed today by Susan Elgin, acting director of the Santa Cruz City-County Library System.
Of the scenarios to be discussed by the library board tonight, one would close all small libraries countiwide for financial reasons, leaving open only the Central, Scotts Valley, Live Oak and Aptos.
The board meets at 7:30 p.m. at Santa Cruz City Council chamber, 809 Center St.
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The Santa Cruz City-County Library System will announce the hiring of a library director from Oregon on Monday, May 11, at a time when deep cuts in services are being proposed to balance the system’s budget.
Closure of the Garfield Park branch on the west side of Santa Cruz and a staff cut at the Boulder Creek branch are on the table along with system-wide staffing reductions.
The new director is Teresa Landers, who will be leaving her job as deputy library director of the Corvallis-Benton County Public Library system. A librarian for 30 years, she was named Librarian of the Year in 2007 by the Oregon Library Association and had been a finalist in the 2008 search to head the Jefferson County library system in Colorado.
Landers will replace acting director Susan Elgin, who took over when Anne Turner retired in December. Elgin, who is nearing retirement herself, wasn’t a candidate.
The library board will meet to announce Landers’ hiring and consider drastic cuts in the system’s fiscal 2009-10 budget.
The budget to be reviewed by the board contains estimated revenues of $11,354,276, a drop of nearly $1 million from the current year’s $12,336,575. The primary cause is a drop in property and sales tax receipts occasioned by the global economic downturn.
In a report, Elgin has proposed numerous possible cuts and asked the board to provide direction before she prepares a final budget for approval in June.
Among the possible cuts are closing Garfield Park, reducing the staff by three, and using the building to house the system’s genealogy collection, cutting both positions at the La Selva Beach branch, cutting a half-time clerk at the Boulder Creek branch and reducing book purchases.
Patrons of the Garfield Park branch are planning a candlelight vigil to show their opposition to closure, and it’s probable that Felton Library Friends would stage protests if their branch were threatened.
Whichever alternatives the board chooses, they would be in addition to continuing a staff furlough program that would save $473,309.