By David Nakamura
Washington Post Staff Writer
Tuesday, August 5, 2008; B04
The District has found $2 million to keep its public libraries open normal hours and will not be forced to cut service hours as was feared last week, officials said yesterday.
Mayor Adrian M. Fenty (D), making his first public appearance since he had a bike accident last week, said the money is available because payment for the District's debt service on capital projects is less than anticipated. Chief Librarian Ginnie Cooper said 71 staff positions will be restored with the funds.
Cooper had said last week that each of the system's 26 neighborhood branches would be reduced by 15 hours a week, which would have included all of them closing on Fridays. The hours of the system's flagship branch, the Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial Library, would have been reduced by 16 hours a week.
In addition to restoring those hours, five kiosk libraries slated to close will remain open.
"This is a signal to our residents that we will make sure we have an excellent library system," Fenty said at a news conference at the Capitol View library in Southeast Washington.
The library system lost 74 employees through an early retirement incentive offered by the District. Fenty administration officials had said many of them would be restored with reserve funds, but the D.C. Council eliminated that money after city finance officials projected a reduction in revenue.
William Singer, the administration's budget chief, said the city will save on debt service because of a combination of low interest rates on short-term borrowing and other factors.
Robin Diener, executive director of the D.C. Library Renaissance Project, expressed relief that the Fenty administration had found the money to restore the libraries' hours.
"I'm glad they did not let those libraries be closed," she said. "That would be tragic. We'd like to see libraries open even more hours."
D.C. Council member Harry Thomas Jr. (D-Ward 5), chairman of the Committee on Libraries, Parks and Recreation, said the council never intended to take funding from the libraries.
"At no time did the council say we want less hours," he said. "We've advocated [for] extended hours."
Save for a couple of dime-size scabs on his lip and chin, the mayor looked healthy yesterday, despite taking a hard fall near the on-ramp to the Whitehurst Freeway while on a training ride July 29.
Still, the mayor was the walking wounded: He was wearing a protective boot to guard the hairline fracture of the metatarsal in his left foot, which he injured playing pickup football July 4.
Fenty's hands and arms were sore, too. As he shook hands with D.C. library board Chairman John Hill, Fenty cautioned Hill to go easy on his grip.
"I have a bum hand, so don't squeeze hard," the mayor said to another man as he toured the library. Fenty said he will be off the bike for at least six weeks as he heals and is unsure whether he will be able to compete in the Nation's Triathlon on Sept. 14.