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Wednesday, January 15, 2003

By Margaret Smykla, Tri-State Sports & News Service

For a while it looked as if the Allegheny County Bookmobile would bypass the Glassport-Port Vue-Liberty area.

But thanks to a yearend $12,000 payment by the South Allegheny School District, the vehicle will stop in the district at least through 2003.

The converted city bus, with "Citizens Book Bank" on the side, will be open for business from 6 to 8 p.m. every Thursday in the parking lot of the new South Allegheny Elementary School along the Port Vue-Glassport border. The service began Thursday.

After the Bookmobile budget was reduced from $700,000 to $500,000, municipalities were asked to pay $8,000 to keep an hour-long stop each week in their communities.

"There was no way these communities could do that," Liberty Councilwoman Janice Matyasovsky said. At that time, the Bookmobile was stopping every Thursday in the parking lot of the Sky Bank on Liberty Way, free of charge to the borough.

Upon receiving the letter soliciting payment, Matyasovsky contacted Port Vue and Glassport officials about beginning a stop at the school for all residents in the area.

"I thought it would be a more central location," she said. She told the school librarian of the idea and mentioned it to her husband, John, a South Allegheny school director, who was not instrumental in putting the item on the school board's agenda.

Sharon Miller, the school district's business manager, said council representatives of all three boroughs approached Superintendent Patrick Risha about the plan.

JoAnn Gubanic, secretary/treasurer of Port Vue, sent a letter on behalf of the communities to Marilyn Jenkins, executive director of the Allegheny County Library Association, asking to extend services until an agreement could be reached.

Jenkins said the Bookmobile will make eight stops this year, down from last year's 22 stops. Besides the South Allegheny school stop, the others are Ben Avon, Kennedy, Marshall, Pine, Ross, Robinson and West View.

Some of the eliminated stops were scheduled to be dropped regardless of the cutbacks, she said. Among them were Duquesne, Forest Hills, and Mooncrest stops because of the presence of alternative libraries in or near those areas.

Seven stops were eliminated in communities without alternative library service. They are: Wilkins, Millvale, Indiana Township, Wilmerding, East McKeesport and two stops in West Mifflin.

Jenkins said anyone with a county library card can borrow books from the Bookmobile. Library cards can be obtained at the Bookmobile.

Books may be returned to the Bookmobile or to any county library. If the Bookmobile doesn't have a particular book, the librarian can order it from another county library.