Brownsville library closed indefinitely
The Brownsville Free Public Library announced last week it was closing indefinitely, though a board member said the hope is to be able to reopen on a limited basis within a month.
In a Facebook post Saturday, the library said it would be closed for reorganization and restructuring.
Board member Jim Pflugh said Tuesday the decision to close had resulted from the board becoming aware of operational issues at the library while looking at potential changes, including restructuring staff operations.
“As we looked at those, we decided we needed to take some time and space, make sure we really understood things and would be able to correct things and move forward,” he said.
The operational issues were generally made up of financial and staffing concerns, Pflugh said.
The library is one of 20 in the Southwest District, which covers libraries in Fayette, Greene and Washington counties, said district administrator Diane Ambrose. The district provides delivery, staff development and other services, though that does not include any financial assistance, she said.
Ambrose said the district’s consultant has been working with the library board to help it deal with the financial and staffing issues.
Their understanding is that the library is in “dire financial condition,” she said.
“We are in regular contact with the library, and we certainly hope that the issues will be worked out and we’ll be able to have our library reopen,” she said. “Sometimes that takes a long time, a long process.”
Asked about the level of financial issues with the library, Pflugh said he did not have a concrete answer off the top of his head.
“Certainly we’ve always been a small library,” he said. “We operate on a lot of donations and support of the local community, local municipalities. So certainly we’ve always operated within our means. And there’s been a lot of times that there are things that we join and look to try to do, but there are times that we make sure that we do stay within our means … part of this is reidentifying, reaffirming that, looking at what we can do to make sure that that’s where we continue.”
Pflugh said the largest source of funding comes from the state. It also receives funding from Fayette County and several municipalities within the Brownsville service area, he said.
The library also receives donations and applies for grants.
“We’re often going in multiple directions at the same time trying to get our funding, so sometimes just coordinating those efforts alone is a task in and of itself,” Pflugh said.
The library’s financial status had not been documented in recent reports.
The IRS revoked the library’s tax-exempt status after it failed to file several tax forms — a Form 990, 990-EZ, 990-N or 990-PF — for three years, according to the organization’s page on Guidestar, a director of non-profits. The most recent tax forms available were from 2020, when the organization reported $444,906 in revenue, including $268,881 in government grants, versus $89,072 in expenses.
The Brownsville library did not have financial or circulation data included in the state’s 2024 library report, the most recent to be released. It listed 1.53 full-time equivalent staff members, including a full-time librarian.
In the 2023 report, the library listed $24,668 in local revenue, $14,180 coming from local government and $10,508 from other sources. That year, it listed $41,294 in expenses, split between $25,311 for staff, $6,601 for collection expenditures and $9,382 in other operating expenditures.
That year, the library reported circulation of 9,325 items between physical books and electronic resources. Its live programs were attended by 2,890 patrons that year, according to the report.
Pflugh hopes to be able to open the library well in advance of the library’s centennial in 2027. Ideally, he said, within a month they will be able to open for at least a couple of days a week so patrons can check out and return items.
The library is also working to be able to resume its partnership with an organization that does fingerprints for security clearances and background checks, Pflugh said.
In the meantime, patrons who have requested interlibrary loans will be able to pick them up at the Uniontown library, Pflugh said.
Pflugh apologized to patrons for the abrupt closure and the issues it caused for residents.
“We certainly felt that for the long-term health of the of the library, we needed to make sure that we took that time, to make sure we understood what the issues were, come up with strategies to address and correct everything and then move forward, rather than trying to do that while we’re trying to do all the operational things,” he said.