The James Prendergast Library and the Chautauqua-Cattaraugus Library System have both received a 25% cut in state aid.

On Friday, Tina Scott, Prendergast Library executive director, told The Post-Journal that the unofficial word has come down from state officials that aid has been cut.

The Prendergast library typically gets around $75,000 from the state in aid, of which $65,000 of that will receive the reduction.

The state aid reduction will be around $16,500.

Scott said funding for nonfiction and reference materials for the entire Chautauqua-Cattaraugus Library System will also receive a 25% reduction. She said the two center libraries, Prendergast and Olean Public Library, house the nonfiction and reference materials purchased with the state funding. She said typically the entire library system receives around $45,000 for nonfiction and reference materials, but that will be reduced by 25% this year, which will be a decrease of around $11,250.

Scott said the reduction in state aid is a direct result of the city of Jamestown cutting the Prendergast Library’s funding by more than 5% in a two-year period.

Because of its own financial issues, the city government cut funding to the Prendergast Library by 50% ($50,000) in 2018 and 71% ($250,000) in 2017.

For the first half of the year, the Prendergast Library and the entire library system completed a Maintenance of Effort Waiver to possibly avoid the 25% cut in state aid.

However, Scott said the waiver request wasn’t accepted because other city of Jamestown government departments didn’t receive the same type of cuts the Prendergast Library did in the 2017 and 2018 budget. She said, even though the Prendergast Library isn’t operated by Jamestown government, state officials looked upon the services the library provides to the community as one provided by the city government.

“(State officials) looked at us as a department of the city. Like we are considered a service of government for the city even though the city doesn’t own the library,” she said.

Scott said the library’s state aid will continue to be cut by 25% each year unless the city increases its funding by 5% over a two-year period.

“It’s extremely discouraging,” Scott said.

In other business, the library received $3,000 through the Give Big CHQ fundraiser sponsored by the Chautauqua Region Community Foundation earlier this month. Scott said another fundraiser will be happening Wednesday from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. at Dow Park, which is located across Sixth Street from the library. She said the fundraiser is titled “Loose Change for the Library” and is being sponsored by The Resource Center and Chautauqua Hospice and Palliative Care. She added there are change donation containers located around the city for the fundraiser as well.