2
Newsom veto
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7
Expanded vaccine access.
Muncy makes a deal.
Monkeypox
No legal drug use sites.
Dodgers
TUESDAY
Volume 21 Issue 237
08.23.22
Libraries to expand staffing and hours after years of reduced service 55.5 30
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Proposed New Hours
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Main Library
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Ocean Park Branch
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Pico Branch
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EMILY SAWICKI SMDP Staff Writer
Residents frustrated over reduced staffing and limited hours at local libraries see hope on the horizon this week, with all five Santa Monica Public Library branches in line for potential staff increases and operating hour expansion; however, even if the proposal is approved,
hours would still amount to less than half the total service time provided prior to the pandemic. The economic fallout from COVID-19 caused the City to slash staffing in several municipal departments including the library system, which saw a 58% reduction in staff in 2020 — going from 112 full-time equivalent employees to 47. In the years that followed,
the library has slowly begun adding additional staff and, as of this week, Santa Monica employs the equivalent of 61.2 full time employees (meaning enough staff to cover the work of that many employees, although some are parttime hires). Before the pandemic, Santa Monica’s five library branches were open for a cumulative 251.5 hours
Longtime Santa Monica teacher Darrell Mettler dies at 81 EMILY SAWICKI SMDP Staff Writer
Longtime Santa Monica resident and Santa Monica-Malibu Unified School District music and math teacher Darrell Mettler died last month at the age of 81. Mettler spent more than two decades teaching instrumental music to elementary school students across the District before finishing his career as a math and computer
science teacher at Samohi, where he taught for 11 years. Mettler’s daughter, Janelle Mettler, said she believed her dad would be remembered by his students for the “peace and gentle acceptance” he shared. “He’s just a solid, really kind, generous, religious, family man,” Janelle said. “To me, the environment [he] created in his career … It feels really safe.” “I’m hoping that the mark he
leaves on each of his students is security and peace and feelings of knowing a little bit about what the frameworks of society are and that they belong,” she added. Darrell Mettler was born in Bakersfield on Nov. 26, 1940, baptized at Ebeneezer Reformed Church in Shafter, California, and Confirmed at Grace Reformed Church in Bakersfield. He was a SEE METTLER PAGE 5
each week and no library operated fewer than 49 hours each week — four libraries were open six days a week and the Main Branch was open all seven. Currently, the Main Library and Pico Branch are open five days a week with limited hours at all other branches; cumulatively, libraries are open for 98 hours each week across town, although over a quarter of
those hours (28 hours per week) are at branches with curbside or selfservice hours only. The proposed expansion would include reopening all branches for standard in-person services for a cumulative total of 116 operating hours citywide per week, although they would cut down on the hours SEE LIBRARY PAGE 5
New interest-free loan program launches in LA County to help prevent homelessness
GRACE INEZ ADAMS SMDP Staff Writer
New assistance is available in LA County to people facing the prospect of losing their homes. The Short Term Eviction Prevention (STEP) Fund, a program funded by the nonprofit, 1p.org, is launching
a pilot program to give out 1,000 micro loans of up to 2,500 dollars to individuals at risk of eviction or dealing with other housing-related challenges. Adam Miller, the founder of the STEP Fund said he started the SEE HOMELESSNESS PAGE 7
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