STEUBENVILLE — A big reduction in state funding has made a 1-mill, five-year levy renewal that’s on the Nov. 4 ballot even more critical to the future of the Public Library of Steubenville and Jefferson County.

“It’s crucial,” library Director Mike Gray said. “If the levy doesn’t pass, you’re going to see fewer hours that the library will be open, fewer days. You’re going to see fewer books in the library, and some people would be laid off. It would have a big effect — in any business, when one-third of your income goes away there are going to be repercussions. We do more with less than anybody, but nobody can withstand a one-third cut.”

State lawmakers earlier this year decided to change the way they fund Ohio’s public libraries — doing away with the defined, 1.7 percent earmark from Ohio’s General Revenue fund that they’d used in the past, replacing it with a fiscal year line-item appropriation in the state budget. The change at the state level reduced library funding statewide by nearly $25 million — in Jefferson County’s case, it left a quarter-of-a-million-dollar hole in the library budget.

That’s why they need the levy money: If renewed, it would bring in a little more than $1.4 million a year for five years. Funds support the library system’s day-to-day operations including the collection, services, and programs. Library officials say the owner of a home valued at $100,000 will pay just $23 a year — the cost of a hardcover book.

“It’s a third of our budget,” Gray said. “It’s a very important thing. People of the county have taken ownership of the library, they take pride in what we do. We’re doing some great things with programs and some of the services we offer, so it’s really important.”

The library’s mission is to serve the needs of the community, so there are mobile hotspots, wireless access and meeting spaces for public use. They offer notary services and a Makerspace, where patrons can use a 3-D printer, digitize old photos and home movies, do some papercrafting or press vinyl on T-shirts and sweatshirts or craft buttons.

They offer children’s programs, online book clubs and a “Chapter-A-Day” e-mail program designed to help them rediscover the joys of reading. Grab-n-go crafts plus books, of course — electronic as well as in print — along with digital magazines and movies, including items geared to young children as well as teens.

The library staff crafts the Story Walks that entertain kids of all ages during First Fridays on Fourth and at area parks.

“We’re kind of the last refuge for a lot people,” Gray said. “They come to us when they don’t know where else to go or what else to do. But during COVID, we recognized that we can’t just sit back and wait for people to come to the library, we realized that we needed to reach out into the community — especially with things like hotspots. A lot of people can’t have internet at home or maybe they’re out doing signups for football league, so we started doing the hotspots.

“It’s one more way to get PLSJ out there.”

In 2024, the library had 22,889 cardholders. Its patrons used the library’s notary services 3,560 times, Wi-Fi 54,145 times and the hotspot 373 times. They visited 55,852 websites and borrowed 239,767 items from the physical collection, used Hoopla 64,659 times to borrow, stream and download movies, ebooks, audiobooks and comics from the mobile app or browser, and used Libby to download 44,455 ebooks, digital audiobooks and magazines.