Guards will patrol
libraries through June

Staff feared for kids'
safety amid a teachers
strike and budget cuts

By Pat Gee
Star-Bulletin

State libraries should still have security guards throughout the length of a public school teacher strike, according to state Librarian Virginia Lowell.

The latest information she has received is that the guards should be available at least until June 30, the end of the fiscal year, Lowell said. But she cautioned that "things like the strike are fluid. It's not definite."

Lowell was told earlier this week by Public Safety Director Ted Sakai that his department's cuts would include $172,000 for guards at the state's 50 libraries.

On March 9, Gov. Ben Cayetano ordered all department heads to reduce their budgets by 1 percent to meet anticipated expenditures.

Lowell said her department would not be able to pay for the guards, as she may have to slash her end-of-the-year budget by some $200,000.

With the expectation of larger numbers of children in the libraries during the strike, "the library staff was petrified that the guards would be lost," she said.

With staffing already at the most minimum level and long stacks of shelving throughout the buildings, the library is "not a real safe place without constant monitoring," she said.

"The guards perform a very important service for us," Lowell added.