The Portland Public Library has been getting a lot of PR recently due to its recent renovation and opening of the main branch. Unfortunately, it has also been getting some bad publicity due to the decision to close down three satellite branches.
Today’s Press Herald reports that some City councilors think it may be a good idea to cut the funding to the library that was used for the three branches that are being closed. This $160,000 savings could then be used for other essential city services.
The library responds by saying that if the city cuts that funding, they’ll need to close two more branches: Peaks Island and Burbank.
The problem is that the city funds $3.1 million of the library system’s $3.8 million budget and city officials have no capacity to say how that money gets spent. Instead, an independent board of library trustees divide up the funds. Since the city has flat-funded the library for the last two years and intends to again, library officials say it makes sense to close the branches.
All this comes on the heels of a recently completed $7.3 million renovation to the main branch. What should have been a PR bonanza of pride and renewal for the grand opening of the renovated facility, has turned into a PR finger-pointing and chest-thumping disaster for the library.
Spending $7.3 million on the main branch, while at the same time closing or threatening to close the remaining five branches, is a PR nightmare. (As I recall, didn’t the city contribute something like $4 million toward that $7.3 million renovation?)
The library should have dealt with this issue of closing branches last year when it came up. Instead, they put it off and are now facing more scrutiny than ever. And rightly so.
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