PORT TOWNSEND – The city’s public library will cut its hours of operation on May 21 because a utility tax ballot measure failed in February, said the facility’s director.

Library hours will be reduced from 54 to 46 hours a week.

“We’ve been working on this for awhile, knowing once the ballot measure didn’t pass that we had to do something,” said Theresa Percy, library director, who sent out a notice of new hours following the City Council’s Monday night 7-0 approval of a new library work plan.

Percy said the decision to cut hours involved library staff and the library’s citizen advisory board.

“This was what we felt was the best configuration to try to sustain services and deal with the reduced budget,” Percy said.

“This is an effort to sustain quality services.”

The Port Townsend Library has the state’s highest per capita use, Percy has said, with 225,449 items checked out in 2006.

Percy reported that community use of the library continued to grow with a 19 percent increase in circulation in January.

Percy said the library budget cannot continue to support staffing the reference desk at the level of 54 hours a week.

The February proposition was shot down by voters, with 1,798, or 45.19 percent, approving it to 2,181, or 54.81 percent, rejecting it.

The measure would have also funded additional positions in the police department, parks and maintenance and operations.

The ballot measure – which looked to garner $403,000 dollars by increasing the city utility tax on phone and power bills from 6 percent to 10 percent – would have included $72,000 in additional revenues for the library.

Percy said the work plan also calls for no increase in the amount budgeted to buy new materials.

With the ongoing raise in the cost of books and other materials, she said the number of new items will actually be reduced.

The library is limited in the number of new books, audio books, DVDs, and large print books it can buy, said Percy.

In addition, it will not expand into downloadable audio books and consumer resource databases.

The library now has 9.39 full-time-equivalent positions and about 100 volunteers who spend various amounts of time helping at the library.

Percy said “$72,000, the amount in the ballot measure, is needed to restore the Port Townsend Public Library to a full level of service.

“It may be helpful to investigate alternative longer-term funding options, such as a special tax levy, that would reduce the library budget’s co-dependence on the city’s general fund,” the city newsletter said.