Two branches of the Louisville Free Public Library will close this weekend, weeks ahead of city lawmakers' vote on the budget — in a move that has sparked frustration among some Louisville Metro Council members.

The Middletown Library, in the East Government Center, will close on Saturday, two lawmakers told the Courier Journal. Councilmen Markus Winkler and Anthony Piagentini said they were informed of the move by a member of Mayor Greg Fischer's administration Tuesday afternoon.

The Fern Creek branch, too, will close effective Monday, a statement from Louisville Free Public Library's spokesman said.

Hours later, at a Wednesday budget hearing, library Director Lee Burchfield confirmed both closures. He stressed that even if some funding were to be restored by the Metro Council, his priority would be to restore the cut hours at branches across the county, which he called the "most devastating" part of the cuts.

Under the current plan, new hours include rotating weekend shifts and reductions in hours at all branches except for the regional and main libraries. They're set to go into effect on July 1, but could potentially be changed, as some Metro Council members requested on Wednesday.

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In a statement, library spokesman Paul Burns said Middletown and Fern Creek would close ahead of the start of the new fiscal year to allow for "adequate staff to shut down the Middletown and Fern Creek branches by July 1, before being disbursed to their new assignments."

"These are not choices that LFPL or Louisville Metro Government wants to make, but decisions that must be made given the pension challenge and lack of new revenues," Burns said.

Louisville faced a $35 million budget hole in the upcoming fiscal year that is expected to increase by $10 million in at least each of the next three years, largely because of rising pension costs set by the state.

Fischer had pleaded with Louisville Metro Council members to approve a tax hike to cover the shortfall, but it was rejected, leaving him to resort to trimming costs. His budget proposal, unveiled April 25, makes $25.5 million in cuts to departments.

Meanwhile, the library decision, and lack of prior communication, has frustrated a bipartisan group of Metro Council members, particularly considering a vote on the budget isn't set for another three weeks and lawmakers could still adjust Fischer's proposed spending.

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Winkler, D-17th District, said he attended a Friends of the Library panel on Saturday and left with the intention of finding a way to restore at least some library dollars from Fischer's proposed cut.

Three days later, he learned the East End would effectively be left without a library for three weeks of summer, in the time between Middletown's closure and the Northeast Regional Library's opening date.

"I find it hard to believe this plan developed this morning at 8, or that we didn't know it was the plan for some period of time," Winkler said. "If it was, why was there a failure to communicate this to key impacted parties?"

Fischer's budget proposal had put the Middletown and Fern Creek branches of the library system on the chopping block but hadn't provided an expected timeline for when they would close.

The administration said Tuesday there needed to be a period of transition for library employees to move to the Northeast Regional Library, set to open in late June, and that they gave notice on Wednesday to the landlords of the East Government Center of their intention to leave the space.

Winkler said he understands the need for a transition period, but questioned whether it had to mean pulling all Middletown staff from the branch and closing it completely, and he said his main problem is the lack of consultation with council.

"We’re either on the same team, or we’re not," he said. "And if we’re on the same team, then we should talk about things like this and understand the impact, work together to try to solve them."

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Fern Creek's annual lease is $107,000, and the Middletown lease is about $445,100, though Middletown's location at the East Government Center also houses the Eighth Division of Louisville Metro Police, among other groups. The city will continue paying Middletown's lease for the next 360 days, per the lease's notice requirement, but Fern Creek's will end in 30 days.

The library's budget would eliminate 11 full-time, non-union positions, 73 part-time union jobs and eight library substitute positions, according to Burchfield, in line with Fischer's proposal that calls for restricting branch hours to one 40-hour shift a week.

Library funding levels were already expected to be a point of conflict between some council members and the administration, with both Democrats and Republicans looking to send some additional money to the system to mitigate cuts.

"I think what you might see is a council willing to stand up and say to the mayor, 'You've gone too far this time. Your priorities are just not ours,'" said Councilman Kevin Kramer, R-11th District.

The proposal has also sparked outcry from library advocates, including Rachel Szerletich, who calls the library system, and Shively Library in particular, a "safety net," helping her manage her mental health even on days where "you don't feel like moving, getting up or doing anything."

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There are the obvious benefits — books, printers, yoga — but there are also the intangibles, she said: Comfort. Creativity. Community.

"(Libraries) provide so much for different people that I don't know how to explain. For me, it has been and continues to be an essential part of helping me retain good mental and emotional health," she said, adding that she often goes to a monthly writers' club and has been part of a book club in the past.

Trimming hours, eliminating substitute positions and losing programming options would be a loss for the whole community, she said, and she hopes to avoid some of the cuts proposed by Fischer.

"I don't want them to cut programs — even ones I don't personally go to — because they serve a benefit," said Szerletich, who's attended numerous budget hearings and discussions to press for lawmakers to defend the library system.

Burchfield, the LFPL director, said last week it's "heartbreaking" to think about closing any library branches. "We need to be opening more libraries, but we have a funding issue."

"Libraries are so important to making neighborhoods happy and smart, bringing communities together, helping the kids in the neighborhood be equipped to succeed in school and (being a) place for community groups to have meetings," Burchfield said. "There's so much a library brings."

And, to make matters worse, the proposed budget cuts come as the library system's funding has lagged in some areas compared with others in the state.

Louisville Free Public Library's materials budget, for example, was less than Lexington's system's in the last fiscal year, despite having more than double the county population, according to a state statistical report.

The president of the library union, Ashley Sims, said after the hearing that Burchfield was right to prioritize restoring hours over branch operations because evening and weekend hours are "absolutely fundamental."

Much of the council's focus on Fern Creek and Middletown "missed the major point," she said: "Libraries are staffed by professionals, and those professionals cost money to employ."

Forcing employees to work every Saturday, reducing pay on Sundays or float from branch to branch, as mentioned by members of Metro Council, would lead to "inadequate services and disenchanted staff that find better places to work," Sims said.

"Working in a public library is not an easy job by any stretch of the imagination, even without all the added stress from this budget crisis," Sims said. "Any solution council comes up with needs to have the mental and physical health of the library's staff in mind."

"... If council wants libraries they need to fund libraries," she added.

City lawmakers are expected to vote on the budget on June 25. Changes to spending levels, including the libraries, are possible.

How popular are Fern Creek and Middletown?

Both Fern Creek and Middletown have seen increasing foot traffic over the last year, according to the library's April statistical report.

In April, the door count for Fern Creek was 7,213, and for Middletown it was 13,910, both well above the April 2018 numbers. And in the 12-month running total, Fern Creek has seen a 3.2% increase and Middletown has seen a 34.2% increase.

In circulation, Middletown's April numbers were the highest of all branches and Fern Creek, too, was above the bottom of the pack.

Burchfield said Crescent Hill, Bon Air and Middletown were among the branches that saw bumps in traffic and circulation when St. Matthews closed in August 2018.

Piagentini, R-19th District, said Tuesday it had been his "top priority" since Fischer unveiled his budget proposal in April to restore funding for the Middletown Library, which he called a "vital resource to the community."

"I've been working with fellow Metro Council members to see about ways to accomplish that," Piagentini said. "The Middletown Library, according to Friends of the Library and the library organization, is one of the top-used libraries in the entire system, so it only makes sense to keep it open."

Louisville Free Public Library said in a statement these branches were chosen "because they are in leased spaces and are in close proximity to other nearby libraries."

Previously:Expansion of Louisville Free Public Library opens in St. Matthews

Darcy Costello: 502-582-4834; dcostello@courier-journal.com; Twitter: @dctello. Support strong local journalism by subscribing today: courier-journal.com/darcyc.