After recent cuts in borough contributions, three Mount Joy nonprofits are making adjustments and figuring out how to keep their programs moving forward.

The Mount Joy Area Historical Society, Main Street Mount Joy and the Milanof-Schock Library all suffered significant 2013 cuts in contributions from the borough, as council struggled to close a $400,000 budget gap in December.

Now, the nonprofits are looking ahead and figuring out how to make up the difference.

"The borough faced some very difficult decisions," Milanof-Schock Library director Debran Rosser-Hogben said in an interview. "We'll hope the economy improves and funding will be restored next year."

Borough contributions to the library were cut by $10,000 in December — a 24.6 percent decrease.

Although the library saw small increases from other municipalities — an extra $2,000 from East Donegal Township, $500 from Rapho Township, and $600 from Mount Joy Township — it was not enough to offset the cuts from the borough, Rosser-Hogben said. Moreover, the library is facing a cut of $10,000 cut in state aid. The cut is being phased in over three years.

"Even though funding is going down, usage is increasing every year," Rosser-Hogben said. Expenses are going up as well, she said, so the library has been making some adjustments in spending. It cut two part-time staff positions at the end of December, and cut spending on cleaning and maintenance.

"I'll be dusting my own office," Rosser-Hogben said.

Due to previous cuts, the library has already been operating on reduced hours for the past three years. Closed on Fridays and only open half days on Saturdays, the library fails to meet state standards because of the scant weekend hours.

Rosser-Hogben said that the library will be making extra efforts to raise funds from private donors this year to help with operational costs. The problem, she said, is that fundraising efforts take up increasingly limited staff time, which may affect the library's programming.

"It's too early to determine whether we will have to cut back on programming," Rosser-Hogben said. "We're just kind of feeling our way through this. It's only been a month but it has already been a challenge."

At the Mount Joy Area Historical Society, trustees Ned Sterling and Tom Derr said that the $2,000 reduction in contributions from the borough came at a bad time.

In 2011, the historical society purchased a historic schoolhouse next to its office and museum at 120 Fairview St. The historical society is currently in the process of renovating the schoolhouse to use as a new meeting hall. Its current location will become exclusively a museum, Sterling said.

"Now, of all times, we don't just have our regular expenses of maintenance," Sterling said. "Now, we have to renovate that building."

Last year the historical society received $3,000 from the borough, which was an extra help, Derr said. Now, it will only receive $1,000 to act as a repository for borough records.

"We already spent about $50,000 on the property — $32,500 to buy it, the sidewalk was $7,000, and we spent about $5,000 to reinforce the front walls," Derr said.

Sterling estimated that it will cost another $100,000 to finish the schoolhouse project.

Although the historical society had reserve funds for the renovation project — and has membership fees to help fray the costs — Sterling said the organization is still worried about paying the bills and will be making extra fundraising efforts this year.

"We're looking for businesses to help us out a little extra this year," Derr said.

Sterling said the historical society will also try out some new ways to raise money.

"We're going to line up an antique appraisal," Sterling said. "We've never done that before. We'll see how the first one goes and maybe do another."

Sterling also expressed concerns for Main Street Mount Joy. The business group's funding was cut by $10,000, which was nearly half of its borough support.

"I think that's really going to hurt there," Sterling said. "MSMJ is the economic force to revitalize the downtown. There were a lot of positive things that were happening there. I just hope that they continue to happen with this reduced budgeting."

Kim Brewer, Main Street Mount Joy's president, said the cuts came at a very vulnerable time in her group's history.

"Pennsylvania Downtown Center is restructuring the way traditional Main Street programs have looked in the past," Brewer said in an interview.

Main Street programs now have to meet tougher criteria to be eligible for grants, Brewer said, and grants will no longer help with operational expenses.

"Now we have to be able to prove financially that for the next five years we can pay for our full-time manager and our operational expenses," she said.

Moreover, Brewer said, to get a high accreditation for grants, MSMJ needs to prove it has a strong partnership with the borough.

"They assess our partnership by looking at the finances," Brewer said. "They will look at the fact that we got $21,000 last year and this year we only got $11,000."

Brewer said she understood that the borough was in a tough position, "But the message that it sends to the (Pennsylvania Downtown Center), to lose almost 50 percent of the borough money that we received last year, is something that we'll have to explain and account for.

"The biggest challenge is a lot of people don't really understand Main Street," Brewer said, "I think a lot of people think it's just about the events. But it's not about the events. What our job really is, is economic development."

Brewer said she hopes this year she can help educate the public on all of the important ways that Main Street Mount Joy contributes to a healthy downtown by obtaining façade and development grants, strengthening the business community and partnering with the borough on projects.

"We will ask for an increase next year," Brewer said. "I'm hoping that when we ask for that increase, that we'll have more people that come out to support Main Street. Other nonprofits had supportive emails in record numbers, and that tells me what we need to do."