Libraries cutting hours, staff in Walker and Dade counties

photo The recently remodeled Chickamauga Public Library will be open fewer hours due to funding shortfalls within the Cherokee Regional Library System in Walker and Dade counties.

Libraries in the Georgia cities of Rossville, LaFayette, Chickamauga and Trenton will only be open 30 hours a week - roughly a 25 percent reduction - under cutbacks approved this afternoon by the Cherokee Regional Library Board.

Three people will lose their job, three will lose their benefits and nine will have their hours reduced.

The cutbacks, which take effect July 1, were made due to an $83,000 budget shortfall caused by an increase in state health insurance costs and a reduction in funding from the Walker and Dade county school districts.

While the library system hasn't decided for sure, it's most likely that the four libraries will be closed on Monday and Wednesday, Library Director Lecia Eubanks said.

Read more in Wednesday's Times Free Press.

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