Many federal programs have been impacted since President Trump’s second term started. Newswatch 16’s Justin Gick shows us what that means for a Bloomsburg employee.
BLOOMSBURG, Pa. — At the Bloomsburg Public Library in Columbia County, Paige Thomas, the community programming coordinator, is preparing for the gaming club she runs a few days a week.
Thomas volunteered with the library last February and joined AmeriCorps after that which is the federal agency for national service and volunteerism.
A couple of weeks ago, Thomas and the library found out that the new Department of Government Efficiency had eliminated the funding for her position.
“I didn’t know what to really think of it like I couldn’t really believe that it was happening. It took a while for it to set in, and there’s a lot of what ifs and unknowns that I had to kind of face first before I could really process the fact that the funding did get cut,” said Paige Thomas, Bloomsburg Public Library Community Programming Director.
The library pays a small portion of Thomas’s salary while AmeriCorps picks up the rest as well as her benefits. Library Director Ammon Young says Thomas is a big part of the library as they are trying to not just be a book destination but a community center where people can gather.
Young says the library is planning to dip into their reserves to keep Thomas on until July, when she was scheduled to finish the program.
“We don’t have very much, but we have just enough to get her through the commitment that the government made to her and that we made to her. We feel like we can at least do right by her in that way,” said Ammon Young, Bloomsburg Public Library Director.
Thomas says she was supposed to receive a scholarship towards her education at the end of her contract. She says with this program now eliminated, she doesn’t know what will happen with that.
“They offered a college reward for the end of your term, so that was going to help me with a semester or two of college,” said Thomas.
Young says although they only had the one AmeriCorps position, he is thankful they didn’t have more at the library who were affected. He says the library also depends on two other federally funded employment programs, the AARP Senior Community Service Program and the work-study program, which he worries about now.
“Both of those, we’re just waiting to see, and if all of that goes away, we’re going to have to reduce programs and reduce hours because there is no way to operate without that support with all of the demand from the community,” said Young.
Thomas says this is just unfortunate, and the kids are losing someone they look up to, which is not fair to them. Young says right now the library is trying to recruit more volunteers in order to not disrupt the different programs.