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Thursday, August 15, 2002

By Johnna A. Pro, Post-Gazette Staff Writer

Communities that wish to continue receiving bookmobile services will have to pay for them beginning next year.

Marilyn Jenkins, the executive director of the Allegheny County Library Association, told the municipalities in a letter last month and at a follow-up meeting that the service would be terminated in January in communities that were unwilling to pay for it.

The communities have until Sept. 15 to sign on to the program.

"We realize they can't execute a final agreement, but we would like to know they have an intent," Jenkins said yesterday. "We have staff, resources and overhead that we have to adjust depending on their choices. This is on a cost-recovery basis. If we're going to do these municipal stops, we have to recover the costs. This is basically a local government decision."

The communities will be billed either $5,000 or $8,000 annually for a one-hour stop each week. Additional time can be purchased in 15-minute increments.

Currently, the bookmobiles make 20 stops a week, including two in West Mifflin. The others are in Ben Avon, Duquesne, East McKeesport, Elizabeth Borough, Forest Hills, Glassport, Indiana, Kennedy, Liberty, Millvale, Moon, Portvue, Robinson, Turtle Creek, West Deer, West View, Wilkins and Wilmerding.

The $5,000 fee will apply to communities, such as Forest Hills, which has no library but already pays for library services, in its case from the C.C. Mellor Memorial Library in Edgewood. Communities like Forest Hills will pay $500 for each additional 15 minutes a week that a bookmobile spends in them. Communities like Kennedy, which are not served by a particular library and pay for no library services, will be charged $8,000 a year for the once-a-week stops, plus $1,000 for each additional 15 minutes a week.

The decision by the Allegheny County Library Association comes as no surprise.

The four bookmobiles were almost pulled off the road in January after county Chief Executive Jim Roddey decided they should be funded by the Regional Asset District rather than by Allegheny County.

Although the RAD board balked initially, its members ultimately agreed to give $400,000 toward the 2002 operating budget. Citizens Bank kicked in another $100,000. The county, Jenkins said, agreed to pay the balance, which will be around $250,000. That amount includes the cost of maintaining the bookmobiles.

The RAD funding was given with the understanding that the association would find a way to pay for the bookmobiles.

"We bought some extra time for them, primarily through this whole 2002 year," Jenkins said. "Clearly the Regional Asset District has stepped to the plate in terms of libraries. We're looking for local communities to pick up their share."

For 2003, the bookmobile budget for targeted services is expected to be $525,000. Targeted services include 33 monthly stops at senior centers and 40 monthly stops at head start programs.

Jenkins said the association would ask RAD to fund $350,000 of that amount and Citizens $100,000. The remainder will come from grants and other funds the association can access.

Wilkins Manager Carolyne Ford said she was still gathering information about the program, but its supervisors have indicated that they will include the bookmobile in their 2003 budget.

Paul Bingham, Ford's counterpart in Kennedy, said municipal leaders there, too, were likely to support the bookmobile because it is popular in the community. Kennedy is one of the largest stops on the bookmobile route.

The bookmobiles began operating in Allegheny County in 1956. Although they had been fully funded by the county until this year, they are operated by the Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh under a separate contract.

Johnna Pro can be reached at jpro@post-gazette.com or 412-263-1574.