Sharpsburg Community Library open Fridays starting in November courtesy of O’Hara gift
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A donation from O’Hara Township has the Sharpsburg Community Library adding an extra day of service per week.
Branch Manager Sara Mariacher said the township gave $22,000 to the library within the past few months.
The library was able to hire an additional part-time employee for 11 hours per week and extend hours of one of its assistants.
That resulted in SCL to be open from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Fridays starting Nov. 4.
“We are so excited to be launching Friday hours for the first time in the history of our branch, thanks to the generosity of O’Hara Township Council,” Mariacher said. “One of the biggest requests from the public has consistently been more library hours, so it’s incredible that we are now able to fulfill that request.”
SCL is a branch of the Fox Chapel-based Cooper-Siegel Community Library.
SCL originally opened in 1996 at the former Linden Avenue school, which is now the Watson Institute Education Center.
It has been in its current location at 1212 Main St. since 2009.
It has seven employees including Mariacher, two program coordinators and four patron service staff.
Sharpsburg borough contributes $22,000 annually to it. Fox Chapel contributes $350,000 a year to Cooper-Siegel. Other municipalities also donate to Cooper-Siegel, which oversees the Sharpsburg branch. It costs about $12,000 per month to operate SCL.
“After Sharpsburg residents, O’Hara Township is our largest municipality in terms of both program attendance and materials circulation,” Mariacher said.
O’Hara Councilman George Stewart said he and his colleagues understand what an important resource the Sharpsburg library is, which is why council specified the township’s contribution be used strictly for that branch and not the Cooper-Siegel general fund.
The councilman said Cooper-Siegel officials approached the township for a contribution earlier this year, and he was happy O’Hara could oblige.
“They had numbers, and we recognize it’s extremely important for the community,” Stewart said. “The Sharpsburg library has somewhat less hours (than Fox Chapel), and they would need to have (these additional) hours because of the need in the community. It’s not like a community center where you charge for membership. They have very little coming in. … Its ability to be self-supporting is very difficult.”
It was unclear if the township donation would become an annual contribution.
Information about programs at both libraries is available online at coopersiegel.librarycalendar.com.