Hairston Crossing Library May Reopen by End of May

The board of trustees of the DeKalb County Public Library this week approved a plan to reduce library hours across the county, a move that will free up funding to staff and re-open the Hairston Crossing branch despite budget cuts.

The renovated Salem-Panola branch and the new Stonecrest library will also open. The Scott Candler Library will close, but a new building is under construction and should be finished by the end of the year, the county library system said in a press release e-mailed late Friday.

The Hairston Crossing branch was slated to open last fall, but staff couldn't be hired because of budget constraints. Under the plan, staff can be reallocated from elsewhere. The trustees "hope" the three branches will be opened by the end of May, the statement said. 

County commissioners last month cut the system's budget by an additional 9 percent to about $12.5 million from a "level that in and of itself would have been extremely challenging," Acting Library Director Alison Weissinger said.  

The budget for materials is down to $100,000 from about $2.4 million in the 2008 fiscal year.  This will "drastically reduce the number of new books, DVDs, DCs and audiobooks the Library will be able to purchase this year," the statement said. There will also be fewer newspaper and magazine subscriptions and reduced electronic resources on the Library's website.