Unless Greenville Area Public Library can make up for quickly evaporating funding, it may have to cut back on hours and programming it offers to more than 5,000 registered borrowers.

Greenville Borough Council on Tuesday dropped its funding of the library from $2 of the $10 per capita tax to donating as much money as the cash-strapped town can afford.

"This year it may be $4,000, next year it might be $1,000, the next year it might be $11,000," said council member Joanne Gibson Price.

Before eliminating the regular yearly contribution, Greenville gave the library $13,000 a year.

Mrs. Gibson Price said the borough had to eliminate the yearly contribution under its Act 47 economic recovery plan.

Greenville is a distressed community under the act, and in exchange for no-interest state loans and planning help, it gives up some control over governmental decisions. The borough faces a debt of $1.5 million, a hole created by misspent bond money and financial mismanagement.

The funding cut comes at a particularly bad time, when libraries across the state are facing up to a 50 percent cut in funding from the state, said library director Sheila Kretser.

The library's yearly budget of $185,000 is made up of $47,000 from the state, $13,000 from the borough and the rest comes from the library's auxiliary organization, Friends of The Library, per capita contributions from Hempfield and Sugar Grove townships, and charity organizations.

Greenville's cut could have an even more lasting ripple effect, said Vicki Cousley, children's librarian. A complex formula bases the state's funding of local libraries on the amount of money received from local governments, she said.

"For this year, we've had to make some changes in the summer reading program," Mrs. Cousley said. "We're having to charge a small materials fee to the students, something we've never had to do before."

There isn't too much wiggle room in the library's budget. Ms. Kretser said the library is already operating at the state minimum for staffing.

Other things can't be cut, said Mrs. Cousley.

"We are mandated to spend so much on new materials, to keep the library current," she said. "And we have to pay utilities, we have to keep the lights on and keep the doors open."

What may happen, Ms. Kretser said, is a reduction in open hours or the elimination of programs.

"We're really trying not to do anything too drastic," Mrs. Cousley said, "but it will be tough."

You can e-mail Herald Staff Writer Amanda Smith-Teutsch at: ateutsch@sharonherald.com