Tarentum branch of Community Library of Allegheny Valley to close

The Tarentum branch of the Community Library of Allegheny Valley is set to close, according to the library’s board of directors.

All operations will be run out of the Harrison branch, a few miles away.

“After much consideration and discussion, the Community Library of Allegheny Valley Board of Directors voted to close the Tarentum branch of the library,” a statement from the board read. “This is a business decision based on use and the escalating costs of operating the site.”

There is no official date set for the closing, according to the statement.

The vote took place last Thursday at a library board meeting. Kathy Firestone, director of the library, said the board had been considering the move for some time.

Louis Hetrick, president of the board of directors, said that rising costs of rent and utilities made it impossible to offset the costs of running the library. He said that moving to another location would not solve the problem. The Tarentum branch has moved five times, and last year it reduced weekly hours of operation from 34 to 29 to cut costs.

The Tarentum branch was the Community Library’s first location almost 100 years ago. Then it was called the Tarentum Public Library. It currently houses the Local History and Genealogy Departments, among other resources.

Harry Thompson, 68, has patronized the branch for around 20 years.

“There’s such a rapport between the customers and the staff,” Thompson said. “It’s like a family atmosphere there, and it’s all going to be broken.”

Thompson doesn’t believe the “business decision” was a wise one, questioning the actual costs of operating the library and how much funding it got from state and local governments.

The library did not provide figures for cost or use.

“It’s a community-based thing. It does bring money to the borough, and I just don’t understand it,” Thompson said. “It’s asinine to give away something that is valuable.”

He fears the closure will be a terrible blow for the community, affecting homeowners and business owners, children and the elderly.

“You don’t know how much this area has died,” Thompson said. “It keeps dying and nothing comes in. It’s time for these leaders to say it’s time to do something, and the library is a part of that.”

Firestone said some of the resources at the Tarentum branch, including the genealogy items, will be moved to the Harrison branch. Not all of the resources will be transferred, though.

“We’ll go through and see what we can use,” she said. “We may have a sale and we will offer other things to other libraries.”

Hetrick said he is expecting some blowback from the community.

“It wasn’t taken lightly,” he said. “We’ve been talking about this for a very long time and this was absolutely the last option we had.”