MOUNTVILLE, Pa. — The Lancaster Public Library funding battle continues.
Last week, East Hempfield Township voted to withhold funding after a scheduled drag queen story hour at the Lancaster Public Library.
Now, another municipality is pulling funding.
Mountville Borough Council members voted 4-2 to pull funding from the Lancaster Public Library’s Mountville Branch. This follows East Hempfield Township pulling its more than $26,000 worth of funding.
However, the controversial event was scheduled at the Lancaster City branch of Lancaster Public Library, not the Mountville branch.
The drag queen story hour was cancelled after a suspicious package was found inside the library and threats were sent to library officials.
Both East Hempfield Township supervisors and Mountville Borough Council members say library programs should remain non-partisan. But Josh Schwartz, the Lancaster Library Board president, says they never intended to be political and the Mountville Branch is not responsible for what happened.
“The Lancaster Public Library does not have a political agenda, nor did we believe that this story hour held in the city would be perceived as political," said Schwartz. "The Mountville Public Library staff, friends and patrons had no role in planning the downtown storytime event, nor is it likely that anyone would’ve considered hosting the event at the Mountville Public Library.”
Schwartz also said taking away funding from the Mountville branch will have a negative impact.
East Hempfield Township posted on Facebook that they hope to continue talks with the library system about its funding.
Both East Hempfield Township and Mountville Borough leaders are asking for a written policy from library officials promising that a drag queen story hour or other controversial events will not be scheduled again.
FOX43 reached out to Mountville Borough Council members for their thoughts on the vote but received no response as of the publication of this article.