By the numbersThe Dade County Library:* 1989: Opened at its current location* 27,501: Volumes on its shelves* 16: Computers* 2: Full-time employees* 3: Part-time employeesSource: Cherokee Regional Library
TRENTON, Ga. -- Facing the prospect of a tough 2011, Trenton city commissioners have cut $31,000 in funding for the Dade County Library.
That's every penny of the city's contribution to the library, and the regional director of the library told commissioners Thursday evening that immediate changes in staffing and services will have to be made to absorb the cut.
"If we do not have money from you, we will have to make decisions Monday morning on how to move forward," said Lecia Eubanks, director of the Cherokee Regional Library system, which oversees the Dade library and three others.
A dozen or more library supporters, including city-appointed board members and employees, attended a budget hearing Thursday evening, pleading with commissioners to come through with at least some money for the library.
Those cuts don't mean the library will close, Eubanks said, but the branch could lose at least one full-time employee, and with a smaller staff, Eubanks warned city commissioners that the library will be open fewer hours. The library currently has two full-time employees and three part-time employees.
Commissioners are faced with a grim 2011 budget. The city plans to operate on $1.54 million in 2011 and Trenton will close out 2010 in the hole, officials said Thursday.
The city's mayor said that figure is a "hopeful" forecast of income and expenses next year.
"I think right now we're going to have to stay where we are at," Mayor Barton Harris said. "But you can come back in June and July, and we can look at it again. ... I can't give you what we don't have."
So that means the library will be forced to survive at least six months of 2011 without any money from the city. That's nothing new. The city still has not come through on its 2010 obligation, but on Thursday, Harris gave assurances that the city would pay the library system within days, but that its leaders shouldn't expect any more money in the new year.
Trenton gave about $30,000 in special purpose local option sales tax money to the library this year for renovations, and Barton speculated that expense could have been mistaken for the city's usual annual contribution to the library.
The library is being renovated and expanded. When done, it will be 4,000 square feet larger, but that project is being paid for state, federal and some local money that can be used only for construction and not for staff or other expenses, Eubanks said.
City Clerk Lucretia Houts said the city simply didn't have $31,000 to give the library and that she'd have to shift money from hotel-motel tax fund to come up with the 2010 payment.
Dade County Library survives on a mix of funding from the state, Dade County, the school system and the city.
Library officials were worried they would not only not be funded in 2011, but also lose the promised 2010 contribution, Eubanks said.
"I was fully prepared to enter 2011 with a $62,000 cut," Eubanks said. "I know the city has choices in where they cut, and my hope is that they will put the library as a high priority because it has a large role in the community."
Contact staff writer Adam Crisp at acrisp@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6323.