Library system to cut hours
The county’s projected revenue shortfall has led the Washoe County Library System to shorten library hours and freeze employment positions.
The library system’s board of trustees approved adjustments to library hours at a meeting on May 21. The new schedule will have a decrease of 39.5 hours per week, which includes 23 hours lost through the May 16 closure of Mendive Community Library.
The new hours will take effect July 1.
“It’s unfortunate whenever we have to do something like that, but we looked at a lot of different options,” Library Director Arnie Maurins said Tuesday. “We don’t have a lot of flexibility in where we can cut.”
Maurins said the decrease in library hours is a result of cost-cutting measures taken by Washoe County. After the county predicted a shortfall in revenue, the library system was asked to cut $1.96 million from it’s $13 million 2008-09 budget.
In addition to the reduction in hours, 29 vacant positions are frozen indefinitely, Maurins said.
This article originally appeared in Reno Gazette-Journal.
