Tough times ahead. Should Santa Cruz offer quality services at fewer libraries or sub-standard services at all libraries?
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Library leaders want to write a new chapter on how to fix the city-county system's financial mess, preferably one in which the denouement isn't shuttering any of the 10 branches.
The nine-member Joint Powers Board of the city-county library system, divided over how to handle a five-year projected $6 million budget shortfall due to uncertain revenue and rising labor costs, on Monday shunned the four service models proposed for streamlining staff, materials costs and other operating expenses.
The board pulled back from the service models, labeled A-D, after hearing numerous pleas from the community to preserve the small neighborhood branches - Felton, Branciforte, Garfield Park and La Selva Beach, which faced closure under Model D.
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