{"id":370396,"date":"2026-07-12T18:02:45","date_gmt":"2026-07-12T18:02:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/370396\/"},"modified":"2026-07-12T18:02:45","modified_gmt":"2026-07-12T18:02:45","slug":"residents-lament-dallas-public-library-closures-on-citywide-furlough-day-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/370396\/","title":{"rendered":"Residents lament Dallas public library closures on citywide furlough day"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Brief<\/p>\n

Many Dallas public offices and utilities were closed on Friday as the city implemented a furlough day to try and navigate a budget shortfall.<\/p>\n

Residents lamented the closure of public libraries, where many go during the summer to beat the heat, find healthy entertainment for kids and more.<\/p>\n

Friday was the first of three furlough days the city has scheduled. The next two are to take place on Friday, Sept. 4 and Monday, Sept. 28.<\/p>\n

DALLAS – Dallas enacted the first of three mandatory furlough days on Friday, and residents hoping to spend summer hours at public libraries were disappointed to find them closed.<\/p>\n

July 10 Dallas furlough day<\/p>\n

What we know<\/p>\n

Several Dallas buildings, services and utilities were closed July 10, the first of three scheduled unpaid furlough days the city has scheduled.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Offices and facilities that were closed included Dallas City Hall, public libraries, and cultural centers.<\/p>\n

\"\"“I was bummed”<\/p>\n

What they’re saying<\/p>\n

Several Dallas residents who regularly use public libraries for various reasons were disappointed to find them closed due to the furlough day.<\/p>\n

“It’s somewhere convenient where you can do your homework, or do a class online, or get documents and stuff done,” Sylvester Harris, who uses the library to complete online courses, tells FOX 4’s Lori Brown.<\/p>\n

“I’m really in a crunch today.”<\/p>\n

\"<div>Sylvester<\/p>\n

Jacqueline Chacon regularly comes with her two children to the library.<\/p>\n

“I was bummed. So my son, David actually, he has autism. So the library has a lot of things to help.”<\/p>\n

Chacon says she hopes the city considers library investments in their next budget to keep a closure like today from happening.<\/p>\n

“It’s our future as well, because we’re going to be a lot older, and they’re going to be the ones in charge.”<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Incoming 7th graders Ames and Jenson Dills were planning on checking out books today, but found the doors locked at their library.<\/p>\n

“I think we all need to be able to open up the libraries again to go check out books and have fun this summer,” Ames Dills said.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

“We learned about this in school a little bit,” Jenson Dills said. “We should be able to cut some of the things that aren’t necessarily essential for other things that are a little more essential.”<\/p>\n

Their younger sister Milly agreed.<\/p>\n

“You should always keep the libraries open,” Milly told Brown.<\/p>\n

Dallas budget shortfall<\/p>\n

The backstory<\/p>\n

In April, the City of Dallas announced<\/a> it is facing a shortfall in its General Fund for the 2025-26 fiscal year, with expenses expected to exceed the budget by $16.4 million.<\/p>\n

The city blamed the shortfall primarily on police and fire overtime pay, as well as declining sales tax collections and increased medical claims bringing the Employee Health Benefit Fund $13.8 million over budget.<\/p>\n

While the city primarily blames police and fire pay and overtime, it also says about 20 percent of the problem is due to declining sales tax collections.\u00a0<\/p>\n

To remedy the situation, the city froze new hires, with an exception for uniformed police and fire personnel. It also restricted overtime and reduced non-critical spending and travel.<\/p>\n

The unpaid furlough days were announced<\/a> in late June. The mandatory furlough days affect employees paid by the city’s General Fund.<\/p>\n

For an employee making about $66,000 a year, those three days will add up to more than $760 in lost pay.<\/p>\n

Employees will not be able to take vacation, sick leave, or comp time on those dates.<\/p>\n

What’s next<\/p>\n

The city council will begin the next round of budget discussions in August. The next furlough days scheduled for the City of Dallas will take place on Friday, Sept. 4 and Monday, Sept. 28.<\/p>\n

The Source<\/p>\n

Information in this story comes from the City of Dallas and FOX 4 reporting.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Brief Many Dallas public offices and utilities were closed on Friday as the city implemented a furlough…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":370397,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[66995,102,106,104,103,131211,35942],"class_list":["post-370396","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-dallas","tag-budget-shortfall","tag-dallas","tag-dallas-city-hall","tag-dallas-headlines","tag-dallas-news","tag-furlough-days","tag-public-libraries"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/370396","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=370396"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/370396\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/370397"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=370396"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=370396"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=370396"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}