Bookmobile service will continue in Ross and Marshall next year.

The board of Northland Public Library has reversed an earlier decision to end funding for the weekly bookmobile stops in the two communities after Ross commissioners protested.

Northland is a regional library serving and supported financially by Bradford Woods, Franklin Park, Marshall, McCandless and Ross. Its building is on Cumberland Road in McCandless, and its budget traditionally contains funds for the bookmobile.

Facing reductions in state aid and uncertainty about funding from Allegheny County's 1 percent sales tax, the library board trimmed its 2010 budget by about 6 percent. One of the items board members cut was $20,000 for the bookmobile.

Ross officials argued that for many of their residents, the bookmobile was their library. Following a meeting last week between commissioners and Sandra Collins, the library director, commissioners President Dan DeMarco said he would ask the board to reconsider bookmobile funding. He is one of two representatives from Ross on the library board.

The board agreed to restore the money Oct. 20, after learning it would receive more from the state than anticipated.

The library board had estimated that it would see its state contribution cut by about one third, and the 2010 budget was based on that assumption, Ms. Collins said.

While state library funding still will decrease next year, the cut is less than originally expected, Mr. DeMarco said. The long-delayed state spending plan, however, contains a smaller, 20 percent reduction in library aid for Northland. The library had expected to get about $227,000, but will receive at least an additional $31,000.

"Since the state money is more than we had anticipated, we can earmark that money for the bookmobile," Mr. DeMarco said.

Final budgets remain uncertain, because Northland and other members of the Allegheny County Library Association do not know how much money they will get from the county's Regional Asset District, or RAD, board. The library association and the RAD board, which distributes sales tax proceeds to not-for-profit institutions, have not agreed yet on a formula for distributing next year's money. Northland gets its allocation through the library association.

The library association also operates three bookmobiles that make more than 80 weekly stops throughout the county. These are most often located next to schools, day-care centers, senior citizen high-rises and municipal buildings.

The bookmobiles operate on an annual budget of about $400,000, according to Marilyn Jenkins, executive director of the library association.

While several communities still are discussing bookmobile funding, the library association has not been informed that any municipality has decided to halt service next year. "For a lot of communities, the bookmobile is the only access residents have to popular best sellers, reference materials and books on CDs," said Beth Mellor, marketing and member services coordinator for the library association. Visitors to the bookmobiles can borrow materials from libraries throughout Allegheny County and have them delivered to their weekly stop, she said.

"Having a bookmobile stop here is like having access to a major library," agreed Vicki Wiegand, of Bradford Woods. "I order something, and it is brought right here."

She was one of the patrons at the bookmobile's stop outside Marshall Middle School Friday afternoon.

Another user, Mary Ackerman, of Marshall, was delighted to hear that bookmobile service would continue next year. "Having the bookmobile here saves gasoline," she said. "It's a much shorter trip for me than driving to McCandless."

Several other patrons talked about the environmental benefit of having bookmobile stops.

In the summertime, Shelly Muhlenkamp and her daughter, Beth, a sixth-grader at Marshall Middle School, can bicycle to the bookmobile from their home in Bradford Woods.

Lucas Allen, of Marshall, a ninth-grader at North Allegheny Intermediate High School, walks each week to the bookmobile stop. "My parents are glad this is one place they don't have to drive me," he said.

The bookmobile stops from 3:30 to 4:30 p.m. Fridays at Marshall Middle School and from 1:30 to 3:30 p.m. Saturdays at North Hills Village in Ross.

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