To comply with the city’s cost-cutting techniques, the Boynton City Library, 208 S. Seacrest, will be closed Fridays starting next month.
Library operating hours will be 9 a.m. to 8:30 p.m. Monday through Thursday and 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturdays.
Karen Abramson, library spokeswoman, said the first Friday the library will be closed is June 12.
“Fridays are one of our quietest days to begin with, especially during the summer,” she said.
Abramson said the Friday closing was handed down from the Boynton Beach City Commission and was not the decision of the library.
“We are just complying with the city’s initiative to close one day during the week,” she said.
The only program running on Fridays was Great Books, which will now be moved to 10 a.m. to noon the first and third Mondays of each month.
In addition to the library, as Abramson said, City Hall, 100 E. Boynton Beach Blvd., will also move to a four-day workweek starting June 12.
Employees will work four, 10-hour days and city hall will be open an additional hour each day Monday to Thursday, under the new schedule.
City Manager Kurt Bressner cited that Coconut Creek, Margate and North Miami have all gone to the four-day week already, and moving to the four-day week could save more than $100,000 a year in utility, custodial and fuel costs.
The commission will continue its budget discussions over the next few months.
Vice Mayor Woodrow Hay said switching to a four-day week is better than cutting more jobs.
Warren Elliot, a Boynton Beach resident, uses the library at least three times a week.
“Times are tight,” he said. “I’m sad to see them close down Fridays but it has to be done. It is better than having us, the taxpayers, pay for it.”
For information, call 561-742-6390.
Mike Rothman can be reached at mkrothman@tribune.com.