When Hank Jedema passes through the Lawrenceville branch of the Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh, he sees children sitting at computers with the world at their fingertips.
"My educated guess is that if you close that branch, they're not going to go home to a high speed Internet connection," said Jedema of Lawrenceville, an assistant professor of psychiatry at the University of Pittsburgh. "By closing their way to the world and to the World Wide Web, you're taking away their opportunity to learn and explore and do a whole bunch of things that our kids need to be able to do."
He was among about 100 people who spoke at a public meeting Saturday with Mayor Luke Ravenstahl and Carnegie officials. Approximately 250 people turned out to protest the Carnegie's plan to close branches in Beechview, Lawrenceville, the West End and Hazelwood and merge the Carrick and Knoxville branches.
The Carnegie announced earlier this month that the closures were necessary due to a projected $6 million operating deficit by 2014. Library system president and director Barbara Mistick noted that numerous public meetings were held during the summer to let residents know about the financial difficulties.
"You'd have to be living under a rock not to know that the library has had problems this year," Mistick told the crowd. "It's a shame it takes a crisis to bring people together," she said after the meeting.
Many residents demanded more transparency in the Carnegie board of trustees' budgetary process and how it spends the public's money. Others voiced their concerns that closing neighborhood libraries would eliminate a valuable resource for kids.
"There is no good reason for closing the library," said Jennifer Frey, 30, of Lawrenceville. "Literacy is essential; it's not something that's fun to have when you have money."
Government officials are working to pull together $1.2 million in local and state funds to cover the library system's budget shortfall next year, which could give the Carnegie time to reconsider its proposal, Ravenstahl said.
"I'm not going to give a dime of city money if it's not going to translate into those libraries staying open," he said. "Right now we are looking for a short term solution to keep the libraries open; then we'll sit down and roll our sleeves up and figure out a long-term solution."
The Carnegie receives 70 percent of its funding, $17.6 million, from the Allegheny Regional Asset District, which doles out money collected from the county's 1 percent sales tax. It receives state funds and a $40,000 contribution from the city. The RAD board plans to commission a special audit of the Carnegie to get a better understanding of the library's long-term finances.
Library officials made no commitment to rescind its plan for branch closures, but Lou Testoni, the finance committee chair of the library's board of directors, said they are reworking the budget to reflect funding it will receive now that a state budget is passed.
"We are looking at our budget so we can incorporate some ideas we've received from residents," he said.
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