Pink slips averted at Queens Libraries

The Queens Library system will remain open thanks to budget restorations agreed upon by the city last week.
The City Council voted to approve the 2012 fiscal year budget that restored a little over $23 million to the system.
With that money, the library system will not have to layoff workers or close about a dozen libraries in the borough.
“Every layoff has been averted so library doors can remain open to enrich the lives of New Yorkers,” said Thomas Galante, the chief executive officer of the Queens Library.
The library system was at risk of losing $25 million in funding for the 2012 fiscal year, which began on July 1 and ends June 30, 2012.
Library staff across the borough received a 90-day notice that they might lose their jobs if the cuts weren’t restored by the city. At the Astoria Library, two staff members could have received pink slips, said Micah Zevin, the branch’s assistant manager.
Residents frequent the library as a place to look for jobs and for information. Children who go to school across the street often come to the library to do their homework, Zevin said.
“The people who rely on us, really rely on us,” he said.
If the cuts had not been restored, about a dozen libraries would have been closed and nearly 500 library employees could have lost their jobs.
“It was always my top priority to restore funding to the libraries so that we would maintain a minimum of five days of service and that we would avoid laying off any library workers,” said Councilmember Jimmy Van Bramer, chair of the council’s Committee on Cultural Affairs, Libraries and International Intergroup Relations.
The system has 64 libraries that serve a little over 2.3 million people in the borough, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.
Mayor Michael Bloomberg and Council Speaker Christine Quinn came to an agreement on the budget on June 24 that restored funding cuts to the library system, averted the closure of four Queens fire companies and saved teachers jobs in the borough.
With a looming July 1 deadline, the City Council voted to approve the budget on June 29 with a 49 to 1 vote that officially restored around $23.2 million of the $25 million proposed cut to the Queens Library system.
“I think it’s a victory for Queens and I think it’s a victory for libraries,” Van Bramer said. “And I’m enormously proud of that.”