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Faced with budget constraints, some county libraries are making the tough decision to cut hours despite state mandates.

According to an e-mail from Youngsville Public Library Board President Sue Perrin, Saturday library hours in Youngsville will be eliminated beginning today, Nov. 21. Library officials have applied for a waiver to relieve the library of state mandates in terms of hours of operation.

Calls to Perrin for comment were not returned and Youngsville Public Library Director Kristy Wallace was unavailable for comment.

Sugar Grove Free Library has reduced hours as well. The library eliminated Friday and Saturday hours, beginning Dec. 1. Library Director Kimberly Wilson was unavailable for comment.

Tidioute Public Library has not trimmed hours of operation, but has not tackled next year's budget yet.

"I'm hoping we don't have to cut any hours, we are already at our state limit," said Tidioute Library Director Elizabeth Nicholson.

Sheffield Township Library is facing less budgetary problems due to the support of its community.

According to Director Janet Gustafson, the Sheffield Township Library was not forced to cut hours, but did scale back its budget.

"We really don't have to go back any hours...we are receiving more help from our municipality," she said.

Because the library is located in a building owned by the municipality, the overhead cost of running the library is lower

"We pay no rent, and have no mortgage," Gustafson said, adding that the municipality also pays a portions of her salary.

Gustafson admitted that she would like see more municipalities take a proactive role in their local libraries with monetary support as Sheffield Township has done.

Warren Public Library Director Patty Sherbondy said she would say the library is almost definitely going to reduce hours, but could not say so with certainty until the board of directors meets on Dec. 14.

State mandates differ from library to library, Sherbondy said, with Sugar Grove, Youngsville, Sheffield and Tidioute required to be open for 26 hours per week, with six of those hours coming during the weekend.

The Warren library is a district center, Sherbondy said, and is required to be open for 64 hours per week with seven of those hours coming on the weekend.

A waiver process exists for all standards, Sherbondy said, not just hours, and there are a huge number of standards.

Libraries which are not going to be meeting their hour standards need to write the state deputy commissioner of libraries, Sherbondy said, and explain why they will not meet them.

The state feels weekend hours are important, Sherbondy said, and will take a hard look at libraries if they are not meeting them.

They want to see statistics and numbers which show that a library is not as busy on weekends, Sherbondy said, and libraries really would have to make a very strong case why they are not wanting to meet the weekend hour mandate and the hour mandate in general.

The state is going to be bombarded with waiver requests, Sherbondy said, with Warren already requesting waivers for the collection standard and local government funding.

Warren will need an hours standard waiver as well, Sherbondy said, with many libraries in the same situation because of a decrease in funding.

Most grant programs do not fund operating expenses, Sherbondy said, and are usually set up for special or new programs libraries want to do in addition to what they are already doing.