State official keeps
Waimanalo library
in line with others

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By Richard Borreca
rborreca@starbulletin.com

A self-help plan to keep the Waimanalo Library open on Saturdays has been stopped by the state librarian, who says budget cuts force all state libraries to be open only on weekdays.

"We have to be consistent, and we have to get the message across that we can't keep adding programs that we can't pay for," said state Librarian Virginia Lowell.

Sen. Fred Hemmings, who represents the Windward area, complained that Lowell is being "unfair, dictatorial and bureaucratic" in her decision. Hemmings (R Lanikai-Waimanalo) protested to the state school board, asking that the board "override this foolish dictate."

The library is open from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Saturdays for a combination of a literacy program, children's story time, crafts and general library use. The state-paid children's librarian, who works 20 hours a week, had shifted her schedule to work four hours on Saturday.

To pay for the other costs of having a children's literacy worker and someone to conduct a story program, the Friends of the Library received a $20,000 grant from Verizon.

"This community has a lot of kids who need some help. This is a good, safe learning environment," said Richard Burns, branch manager.

As a compromise, Lowell said the program could operate in a community meeting room, but not in the library.

Burns said about 25 children are in the children's story program, and five more are in the literacy program and 25 adults use the library on Saturday.

Because the library is attached to Waimanalo Elementary school, the library has to be open during the school week to handle requests from students, so it cannot close during the week and open on Saturdays, Burns said.

Saying that "one of our library's strengths is that we all do the same thing," Lowell argued that if the Waimanalo facility is allowed to open, it would be unfair to other libraries that might want to deviate from the ordered closing.

To comply with budget tightening under Gov. Linda Lingle's administration, libraries are cutting hours to five days a week at most libraries and ending the Bookmobile program. The state library system has a budget of $23 million, and the cut, originally pegged at $1 million, was reduced to $500,000.