Two Newark Library Branches to Close Aug. 27
NEWARK - It appears that neighbors of the Newark Public Library's First Avenue and Madison branches have until 5:30 p.m. Aug. 27 to check out materials, access the Internet or read.
The respective storefronts at 282 First Ave. and 790 Clinton Ave., are to then close to help the library system absorb a $2.45 million cut of the city's proposed 2010-11 budget allocation.
It is not known whether Madison and First Avenue's closing is indefinite or final. That decision may be up to those across the city who are able to prevail on Mayor Cory A. Booker's administration to partially or completely restore the cut.
Library Director Wilma Grey considers the two branches as at least indefinite to the public. Grey has said since June that the NPL Board of Trustees were closing them because their premises are leased - not city owned.
Grey, in several Wednesday night presentations among most of the branches, explained that the city supplies 90 percent of the 12-branch system's operating budget. While the $2.45 million cut is a 20 percent loss, its effect on hours and operations amount to more like 40 percent since the reduction has to be absorbed during the latter half of this year.
All 12 outlets, for example, have been closed Mondays and Tuesdays until at least Dec. 31 since Aug. 16. The 11 branches have lost Saturday hours and the main library at 5 Washington St. closes at 1:30 p.m. instead of 5:15.
There are 31 employees facing layoffs mostly through attrition; those remaining face additional furlough days. There is also the reduction in acquiring new books and other lending materials, community programs and opportunities for local and statewide research.
Booker has asked department heads to reduce spending by 20 percent as a means to fill a $70 million deficit. Most non-uniform employees have been taking unpaid furloughs; uniform officers may be reduced by some 200 members.
The council, however, had indefinitely tabled the mayor's plan to establish a water and sewer Municipal Utilities Authority earlier this month. Booker's administrators have meanwhile published a list Aug. 24 of properties for possible sale and lease-back.
There are others across the city, however, that want to save at least the branches from a final check out.
Volunteers Teri Seuss and Christina Shyllon occupied a card table before the main branch 10:30 a.m. - noon Aug. 21 and 3:30-5:30 p.m. Aug. 20. Seuss and Shyllon handed out literature about the library cuts and asked patrons and passers-by to sign a petition to keep the system open.
"It's been going well," said Seuss, who have been a member of the anti-MUA Newark Water Group. "We times today's presence with the summer reading awards ceremony upstairs. Maybe we can get some of the parents from the branches to sign."
Seuss was referring to The Prudential Foundation's Summer Reading Challenge Awards being held in the second floor Centennial Room. Some 250 parents celebrated their children's book "Make A Splash @ Your Library" reading accomplishments.
All 12 outlets had 342 children participate, some of who read up to 200 books over the summer. First Avenue had 38 and Madison had 17 participate.
Shyllon and Seuss sad they were trying to organize a "Read-In" before City Hall steps Aug. 30. They furnished handbills urging the public to speak out "and bring a book to hold up in protest" at the council's 12:30 p.m. Sept. 1 meeting.
North Ward Councilman Anibal Ramos, Jr., at the Aug. 4 council meeting, said that he wil be speaking with city administrators and library officials on keeping both branches open. Petitions for signing are on South Ward Councilman Ras Baraka and Councilwoman At-Large Mildred Crump's City Hall office counters. An aide for Baraka said that they take the petitions with them to Ward events for signing.
Petitions are also found at the endangered branches, offering hope to their patrons and staff in the midst of sadness.
"It's sad," said Branch manager Juanita Egoavil to Local Talk Aug. 25. "There are neighbors who are unhappy that they won't take a book out or use the computers here. The petitions are out here and the neighborhood has rallied to support the branch."
The First Avenue Branch, at the corner of North 10 Street, was once a bakery before NPL leased the storefront in 1977. It has heavy foot traffic due to its location to the old and new First Avenue School, the old and new Schools Stadium and Bloomfield Avenue.
Both Egoavil and Madison Branch colleague Belvin Stockton said that the staff will stay on for a while, cataloging and storing books behind closed doors, after Aug. 30.
"It seems that we're always on the top of the list," said Stockton Aug. 25. "That's because we don't own the property; it's leased."
NPL began leasing 790 Clinton Ave. from a real estate agent in Nov. 1974. The agency owned the Roosevelt Apartments, whose retail space once included a market, a hairdresser and a television repair shop.
A look at contemporary newspaper clippings since 1901 shows that NPL tended to open a branch in a leased space before building a structure of its own. "Branch No. 1," for example, was a downtown storefront before Library Director John Cotton Dana converted it into the country's first business library branch. The Business Branch moved into 34 Commerce St. in 1928, just before Dana's death.
Dana and his successors established the current branches plus some 20 smaller satellites in public housing projects, factories and stores. Several school libraries, like in the Mt. Vernon Elementary School in 1955, were joint efforts with the Newark Public Schools.
The Newark Public School Advisory Board unanimously approved a resolution Aug. 25 that the city provides the necessary resources to keep the library branches open.
The Madison and First Avenue branches previously faced the chopping block three times since the 1980s due to city budget cuts. Each time they were spared when either the council or Mayor Sharpe James or a philanthropist found the additional necessary funds.
The Roseville Branch, 99 Fifth St., got a Jan. 1, 2009 reprieve when the city partially restored a 10 percent funding cut. The Mt. Vernon Branch was not as fortunate, closing despite parental and neighborly objections in 1997. The Business Branch also closed and its holdings moved to the Main Library about the same time.
East Orange had temporarily closed all but its main branch due to city budget cuts in the early 1990s. Paterson reduced its eight branches in half at the same time.
Irvington closed its branch at Grove Street and 16th Avenue in 1996, followed by Belleville's Silver Lake Branch last year. Montclair has only either its main or Bellevue Avenue branch open during the week; Camden is considering closing its three libraries.
Details are found on savenewarklibraries.org
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