By JIM WALSH • Courier-Post Staff • August 8, 2010

CAMDEN — A rescue plan is in the works for this city's endangered libraries.

Mayor Dana Redd and Camden County Freeholder-Director Louis Cappelli Jr. on Monday are expected to announce a plan to save the libraries, now facing shutdowns due to the city's financial crunch.

Details of the plan were not provided in an announcement from Redd's office on Saturday. But Redd previously has said she was talking to the county about taking over the libraries in this impoverished city of 80,000 people.

In a statement issued Saturday night, Cappelli said the county and the city are working "to put together a plan, pursuant to state statute, where if the city wants to become a part of the county (library) system, it would be possible for them to do so."

Cappelli added, "It's a top priority for the freeholder board to ensure that the city is not without a library." The three-library system has looked like a casualty of the city's financial crunch, the result of a weak economy and reduced state aid.

The mayor, citing the city's $28 million deficit, has ordered across-the-board spending cuts of about 25 percent for all municipal departments, including police and fire. But Redd last month provided the library system only a third of the funding it had sought, or about $282,000.

She said the city's strained finances allowed no more aid. In turn, the library board announced a plan to close its Fairview branch in September and lay off more than half of its 21 employees by the end of October.

Even with those cuts, the system would run out of money and shut down its two remaining libraries by year-end, said Library Board President Marty McKernan.

Members of city council and Redd's resident advisory council also are to attend Monday's press event at 11 a.m. in city council chambers.