MOUNT HEALTHY — More than 500 people turned out Tuesday night to save their branch library.

        Jeanne Phillips, a 37-year-old Mount Healthy mother of three school-age children, seemed to sum up the sentiment of the crowd when she addressed the library board in the meeting in the Mount Healthy High School cafeteria.

        “We'll take a lesser kind of library,” Mrs. Phillips said. “Just don't take away our library.”

        The board of the Public Library of Cincinnati and Hamilton County, which has to make millions in budget cuts because of declining state income-tax revenues that fund libraries statewide, was presented with a petition containing 6,800 signatures opposing the closing of the Mount Healthy library branch.

        Janet Curley, a Mount Healthy businesswoman and substitute teacher, suggested alternatives to closing the library branch. Ms. Curley said the board could raise fines, cut expenses across the board at all branches, transfer money from capital improvements funds, close on Sundays and trim the number of CDs and videos the library has available.

        The latter suggestion drew applause. Earlier, several speakers suggested the library should not try to compete with the large video, CD and DVD rental businesses.

        On July 15, the library board voted to close the Mount Healthy, Bond Hill, Deer Park, Elmwood Place and Greenhills branches in an attempt to save $2.2 million next year. Those branches were selected from the 41 the board operates in Hamilton County, officials said, because of their small size and proximity to other branches.

        A public outcry against the closings prompted the board to announce hearings on how else the budgetary savings might be accomplished. Tuesday's meeting was the first of five.

        Ten-year-old Andy Claire, a fifth-grader at Jane Hoop Elementary School in Mount Healthy, told the board he was a good example of the value of a community library.

        “I'm living proof,” Andy said. “Last year in fourth grade, I beat all the fourth-, fifth- and sixth-graders in my school to win the top intermediate reader award.”

        His school has a small library, but doesn't have enough material for its accelerated reading program, Andy said, and once a month his class walks to the Mount Healthy Library.

        “The Mount Healthy Library means very much to me,” Andy told the library board members. “It is a fun and happy place that feeds my love of reading, and they have lots of things to do. I'm getting a good education, too.”

        State Rep. Patricia Clancy, whose district includes Mount Healthy, urged the library board to rethink its decision to close the five branches. Referring to the standing-room-only crowd, she said it indicated

        “a community very willing to work with you to find alternatives to closing the library.”

        Mount Healthy Mayor Ross Bittner told the board he believes community residents would support a library tax levy — something the board says it is not considering at this time — if the board would guarantee the city branch library would stay open.

        “I think it's an option you should look at,” the mayor said. “If you could guarantee we keep the branch open, I believe the levy would pass.”

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