A reduced budget will mean reduced staff and hours for Edison’s public library system.
Come January, all three branches of the Edison Public Library are slated to be open just four days a week — the result of the layoffs of five full-time employees.
The cutbacks, effective Jan. 3, are due to a shrinking property tax ratable base in the township, which has been slammed by tax appeals. Edison saw a loss of $200 million in ratables in 2010 alone.
Since the library budget is based on a percentage of equalized property values, as per a state law, the library board found itself facing an unexpected decline of roughly $300,000 in its budget from 2011 to 2012, according to Judith Mansbach, director of the Edison Public Library.
“In order to live within the new budget, layoffs were necessary,” she said in a Dec. 19 statement.
Mansbach said library officials have communicated with the administration about their situation, but additional funds were not immediately made available.
“The administration has offered to ask the Township Council to make up the amount of the budget cut and keep the library budget at the 2011 level,” she said. “The library board accepted their offer. However, to date, definite confirmation that this will happen has not been received.” Since the new budget takes effect on Jan. 1, the library board had no choice but to create a budget based on the 2012 reduced figure, Mansbach said.
Because of the decrease in tax ratables, the library appropriation has dropped from its 2011 level of $5.3 million to below the $5 million mark.
Mayor Antonia Ricigliano said she and Business Administrator Maureen Ruane have met with library officials on the matter.
“We assured them that we supported putting the $300,000 into the 2012 budget, but the extra appropriation does need council approval,” Ricigliano said. “We have reached out to the council’s finance committee.”
Councilman Wayne Mascola, liaison to library board, said he and councilmen Thomas Lankey and Alvaro Gomez, both members of the finance committee, met last week with the library director, a member of the library board and Ricigliano in hopes of resolving the situation.
“We are working on it,” Mascola said, adding that he hoped the council would pass a resolution Dec. 28 to guarantee the $300,000 allocation to the library for 2012.
“It’s hard because we have not seen the [2012 municipal] budget,” he said. “The town is off [Dec. 26] and pretty much we have to hammer this out on [Dec. 27].”
Ricigliano said the administration is working on the 2012 budget, which will be presented to the council in February.
Mansbach said if the additional funding becomes available, “actions can and will be taken to reverse” the layoffs and reduced hours of operation.
The library was also forced to make more than $300,000 in cuts earlier in 2011. In March, it announced the elimination of seven positions and the institution of 10 furlough days that had the libraries closed one day a month throughout the year.
As of Jan. 3, the Edison Main Library, located at 340 Plainfield Ave., will be closed Mondays and Fridays and will be open Tuesdays andWednesdays from 9:30 a.m. to 9 p.m., Thursdays 9:30 a.m. to 5 p.m., and Saturdays 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. The North Edison Branch, at 777 Grove Ave., will be closed Tuesdays and Thursdays and open Mondays and Wednesdays from 9:30 a.m. to 9 p.m., Fridays 9:30 a.m. to 5 p.m., and Saturdays 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. The Clara Barton Branch, at 141 Hoover Ave., will be closed Wednesdays and Fridays and open Mondays from 12:30 to 8 p.m., Tuesdays 9:30 a.m. to 5 p.m., Thursdays 12:30 to 9 p.m., and Saturdays 9:30 a.m. to 5 p.m.