Library announces fewer hours of operations

STAMFORD -- As part of an effort to close a $400,000 budget gap, the Ferguson Library announced Friday that it will reduce hours of operation at all four of its locations in the city.

The Harry Bennett branch on Vine Road is to see the largest reduction in hours, from being open six days a week to four -- a loss of 12 hours a week. Library officials said they reasoned that Harry Bennett users could use the Weed Memorial & Hollander branch on Hope Street, which will be closed on Monday but have extended hours on Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday.

The South End branch will also no longer be open Mondays. Its hours of operation will be cut by 9.5 hours a week.

The main library in downtown Stamford will remain open seven days a week, but will open one hour later beginning at 11 a.m. Mondays through Friday.

The hours for the bookmobile will remain the same: Wednesdays from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.

Taken together, the reduced hours at the main library and three neighborhood branches add up to 21.5 fewer hours a week that people will be able to spend at a public library in Stamford.

"Our intention was to cut back the fewest amount of hours and to keep the libraries and the main branch open to the fullest extent possible," said Kathryn Emmett, who was voted in this week as the new chairwoman of the Ferguson Library Board of Trustees. "Those branches near each other will be open every day except Sunday."

Ernest DiMattia, Ferguson Library president, said the decision to cut more hours at the Harry Bennett branch came down to its relatively high cost of operation.

Since March, library officials have been struggling to deal with city cuts that left them with an operating budget of $850,000 less than last year, which immediately sparked talk of closing certain branches.

Although various doomsday scenarios had been tossed out over the past few months, the board managed to avoid making steeper reductions in hours of operation because of $400,000 worth of concessions made by its union, according to library officials. The bargaining unit, which in the process avoided layoffs, agreed to give up a 3.25 percent scheduled pay increase, accept a two-week unpaid furlough, an increase in their health insurance contributions from 5 to 10 percent, as well as other givebacks.

The library's management staff, meanwhile, agreed to a 10 percent pay cut as well as the same increased health insurance contributions as union employees, Emmett said.

The agreement with the union included a decrease in the overtime rate paid to employees who work on Sundays, one of the busiest days at the library. That, along with a contribution from the business community, allowed the board to keep the main library open Sunday.

"The main library has the largest collection, the most in resources. It is the core of the library system and it is important to us to keep it open," Emmett said.

More Information
New hours Effective Oct. 4 Main library Sunday 1 to 5 p.m. Monday-Thursday 11 a.m to 8 p.m. Friday 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. Saturday 10 a.m to 5 p.m. Harry Bennett branch Monday and Wednesday 11 a.m to 7 p.m. Friday 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. Saturday 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Weed Memorial & Hollander branch Tuesday and Thursday 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. Saturday 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. South End branch Tuesday and Wednesday 11 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. Thursday 1 to 7 p.m. Saturday 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Bookmobile Wednesday 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.

By reducing its hours of operation, the board effectively rejected a plan by former Board of Education President Richard Freedman to give the library $100,000 if the board agreed not to cut any hours but instead eliminate costs among management.

The four employees at the management level had agreed to reduce their salaries and benefits by $130,000, but Freeman proposed an additional $200,000 in cuts.

Emmett said Freedman's proposal was "not a feasible idea," explaining that it was not possible to terminate any of the four staff members without having to replace them.

She added that one employee, the library's director of human resources, had volunteered to cut her hours in half as well as reduce her salary by 10 percent.

On learning about the reduction in hours, Freedman on Friday expressed his disappointment with the library's decision.

"I think they are making some poor trade-offs," he said. "They are choosing to cut hours instead of cutting people who don't serve the public."

During a year in which libraries across the country are grappling with funding problems, Freedman's proposal has stirred debate in the community about how Stamford's system is run.

Freedman, a housing developer, claimed that he performed his own cost comparison analysis of the largest libraries in the state, leading him to conclude that Stamford has the most expensive library system in terms of cost-per-hour-of-operation.

The library has stressed the size of its circulation -- a total of 1.1 million pieces -- and the population it serves, which came out to 892,000 people last year. Library officials have also cited the flailing economy, which has increased demand for library services.

Freedman, however, responded, "I'm not proposing to cut people who check out books, but people who work in the central office.

He said he would be open to donating to the library in the future, but only if they were willing to cut their costs further.

"I'd like to think I had some effect on their decision making," he said. "I'm just trying to be as helpful as I can. We just have a fundamental disagreement."

Staff Writer Elizabeth Kim can be reached at elizabeth.kim@scni.com or 203-964-2265.
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