By Liz Sidoti
The Associated Press

COLUMBUS - Plagued with continuing budget problems that have led to job cuts and curtailed services, the state agency charged with preserving and chronicling Ohio history announced Friday that it is eliminating 39 more staff positions.

The reductions, mostly affecting preservationists, archivists, librarians and support personnel at the Ohio Historical Society's main center in Columbus, mean that the society's staff has been cut by 25 percent statewide over the past two years.

"We fear that what will be diminished is our ability to document and preserve an enduring record of our state's past," said Deputy Executive Director Rachel Tooker.

The state funds about 70 percent of the society's budget. The Legislature and Gov. Bob Taft gave the society about $13.4 million for the budget year that began July 1, and about the same amount for next year.

Once the society closed the books from the budget year that ended June 30, it determined the funding it received from the state for this new budget year was $1.7 million less than it needed to sustain current staffing, said Kathy Hoke, a society spokeswoman.

But funding has not been much better in the past few years for the society, a nonprofit agency created by the Legislature in 1885 to be the state's curator.

In 2002, the state cut the society's budget by $1.8 million, forcing it to close its Ohio Village during weekdays and eliminate 33 jobs. The village near the Ohio State Fairgrounds in Columbus is a re-creation of 19th century community.

Since 2001, the number of society staff has dropped from the equivalent of 402 full-time employees to 310 after the latest job eliminations.

The society warned lawmakers in May that it would have to close 10 of its sites and limit hours and services at some others if it didn't get adequate funding.