For nearly the past 10 years, 92-year-old Norm Jacobs of Natrona Heights, Harrison, has had a daily routine. Jacobs, a retired attorney who still has a law license, stops for eggs at Massart’s restaurant on Sixth Avenue, checks in at his nearby office, and then walks down Lock Street to the Tarentum branch of the Community Library of Allegheny Valley.

Jacobs has enjoyed spending parts of his days researching local history and other topics of interest in a library jammed with cemetery records, old newspapers and census information on microfilm.

“I’m a regular customer, so I keep up on what’s (been) here as well as stuff that’s new,” Jacobs said. “For instance, they have all the Tarentum High School yearbooks going back to 1920.”

But Jacobs won’t be able to engage in his routine any longer.

The Tarentum branch of the library shut off its lights for the last time at 4 p.m. Wednesday.

In December, the library board voted to close the building in Tarentum and move all area operations to the Harrison branch, a few miles away.

Louis Hetrick, president of the board of directors, said at the time that rising costs of rent and utilities made it impossible to offset the costs of running the library. Last year, the Tarentum branch, which had been at its most recent location for nearly two decades, reduced its weekly hours of operation from 34 to 29 to cut costs.

“If we were a business, we would have been gone a long time ago,” said Kathy Firestone, library director. “We’ve never been able to afford two sites. It doesn’t have sustainable funding.”

But it was more than a matter of sustainability. Firestone said there was no longer enough use of the Tarentum Library to justify keeping it open.

“There is a core who uses this library who are from Tarentum, but (most of) the use is not from the people in Tarentum,” Firestone said. “Whenever we would do summer reading here, we didn’t have anybody from Tarentum. The kids would come from Natrona Heights, down in the Valley or across the river.”

Genealogy items moving to Harrison

Firestone said some of the resources at the Tarentum branch, including the local history department and genealogy items will be moved to the Harrison Branch.

A book and furnishings sale will take place at the Tarentum site on March 19-21. Details will be announced.

Ronda Dibas, who worked for the Tarentum library the entire time it was located on Lock Street, said not having a branch in Tarentum for the first time in 96 years is devastating.

“We were never given warning (it was closing). Maybe it couldn’t have been saved, but we were never given an opportunity to try,” said Dibas, who added that Tarentum was losing the heart of its community.

“What else is there in Tarentum? Nothing. Not that many people used it, but who closes a library? You (should) do everything you can to keep it open.”

Much of the library’s last day of operation in Tarentum was devoted to celebrating Dibas’ 18 years of service. She and Kathy Bollinger, the only other employee in Tarentum, were offered the chance to continue as librarians at the Harrison branch. Bollinger accepted, but Dibas is choosing to retire.

“If we wouldn’t have closed, I would have never thought of retiring. But once I knew we were closing here I didn’t want to go anywhere else,” Dibas said. “This is my family here. This is kind of like my home here. The people come in and we’re family.

“I never did it for the money because they don’t pay much here at all. I did it because I liked the job and I liked the people.”

Firestone said the people who have used the library in Tarentum are heartbroken.

“I think that it’s a warm, fuzzy feeling to know that you have a library in your community, even if you don’t use it,” Firestone said. “I think you feel pride that you have a library in your community. And that’s what hurts me the most.”

Firestone added that she has informed the board that she hasn’t given up on the idea of a branch location reopening in Tarentum.

In the meantime, she is looking into delivering books to Tarentum residents who can’t get to the Harrison location.

“If people would call up to us and they have a library card, my staff all has transportation and we could get them their books.”

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