As the evening came to a close on election night, employees at the Franklin-Springboro Public Library were pleased to see the library's 1-mill, 5 year levy pass.
The final results were 8,664 votes for the levy and 4,916 against.
"I'm happy. I'm more relieved than anything else," said library director Anita Carroll. "We had a good feeling, but it's bad economic times so you just never know."
Since 2000, the library has faced continual decreases in funds. According to several state legislators, the fiscal year in 2012-2013 will be even tighter in funding. The library reported that in the past decade, they have lost a total of 28 percent in funding.
Had the levy failed, Carroll said they would have had to consider closing the library for whole days and "basically never buying a new book."
When the cuts increased this year, the library eliminated four full-time positions, all part-time staff by 50 percent, eliminated the remaining new materials budget, cancelled more than 60 percent of library story times and placed a freeze on crafts and programming budget as well as a reduction of 20 percent in library operating hours at both library locations.
Carroll said a good campaign helped get this levy to pass. Some of the promises of a passing levy included reinstating its operating hours, the new materials budget and children's programming. The levy will also produce revenue that will help the library upgrade its technology and provide the needed maintenance.
The next step for the library is to do some strategic planning. Carroll explained that the help from this levy will prevent future state budget cuts from affecting library services and operating hours.
"So I'm very happy (the levy passed)," she said. "Everybody's happy."
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