The Free Press, Mankato, MN

Local News

July 17, 2009

Mankato library to drop Sunday hours

Acquisition budget also to be cut

By Dan Linehan

MANKATO — Mankato’s public library will stay closed on Sundays this fall and buy about 14 percent fewer books, the first casualties of funding cuts.

The library lost $19,000 in funding from Mankato as a result of state aid cuts. It may lose more as Blue Earth County decides what to cut.

In the past, the Mankato library has been open from 1 p.m. to 5 p.m. on Sundays when school was in session and closed during the summer. But it will stay closed Sundays this fall, reducing the library’s hours from 56 to 52 per week.

The change will save an estimated $4,500 in wages and utilities, said Tim Hayes, director of Blue Earth County’s library system.

Sundays were typically the library’s slowest day, with about a third as many checkouts as a typical four-hour period.

The rest of the city’s cut will be taken from the library’s acquisition budget, which would have been about $110,000 this year.

More cuts to hours or the acquisition budget might be coming after the county releases its budget.

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