ECTOR COUNTY, TX (KWES) - The song by the Beatles, "With A Little Help From My Friends," is what the Friends of Ector County Library is all about.
But with the Block Grant of $23,100, the children's program might just have been saved for a bit.
"We wouldn't have any of the children's programs or they would be highly restricted," said Rebecca Taylor, Director for the Ector County Library.
The children of Odessa could have missed out on things like the summer reading program. But that's just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to how the budget cuts have been affecting them.
"The Audio-Visual department has been hard hit this budget cut because we lost 5 people total. 2 of them have come out the Audio-Visual department. There was only 3 in there," said Taylor.
The short staff have really caused a strain to be able to cover all the departments.
"We would close down the departments first. But yes if it gets to that point, we would have to close down the library. Because we wouldn't have enough people to close down the department," said Taylor.
The library, as a whole, needs to be upgraded with new equipment.
"We haven't been able to upgrade a lot of our infrastructure, like the firewall. We also need to increase our Internet access in order to accommodate the number of computers and public use that we have," said Taylor.
This is the first year that Friends of the Ector County Library have used the Block Grant. Normally, they use piece grants, which the group still plans on doing this year.
"For instance, if a speaker is suddenly available," said Taylor.
To learn more about, Friends of Ector County Library, click here.
