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Binghamton Closes All Four of Its BranchesAfter receiving a $240,000 budget cut from the city of Binghamton, the Broome County (N.Y.) Public Library System closed all four of its branches on December 31. The collections will be put in storage over the next few weeks, the WIVT-TV Web site reported December 31. Although some staff will be transferred to the system’s main library downtown, which will remain open because it is funded by the county, others will be laid off. Shutting the branches will cost the city $100,000—half will go toward paying salaries through March, and the rest to buy out building leases and to move and store books and equipment, WIVT-TV reported December 5. “I feel that we need the neighborhood libraries, for us, the older ones, and for the children,” said Marie Benedict, who comes in once a week to send e-mail to her great-grandchildren. “I grew up with a library.” The cutbacks reflect a budgetary crisis that has hit towns in upstate New York particularly hard this year, the Associated Press reported December 31: In addition to the slumping economy, health and liability insurance premiums skyrocketed this year and municipalities are being asked to make larger contributions to the state’s public-employee pension fund. Posted January 13, 2003. |
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