The town will be able to fund 18 hours a week of public access to the Wareham Free Library, but patrons of the Spinney branch might not be as lucky.

Town Administrator Derek Sullivan said Tuesday the library could be open three days a week starting July 1, based on next year's funding.

The Wareham Free Library will be open Thursday, Friday and Saturday from 10:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. and the Spinney branch will be closed, according to Deborah M. Rich, head of reference and adult services at the Wareham Free Library.

This would include the loss of one full-time employee, bringing two employees down to 20 hours and one employee down under 20 hours of work per week.

In the balanced budget passed by Town Meeting in April, the town allocated $125,000 to the library. Sullivan said it was brought to his attention this week that the fiscal year 2013 and 2014 state aid grants had not been expended, which equal about $38,000.

Sullivan said it was upsetting that the Wareham Library Foundation provided $70,000 for library employee salaries in 2014,

"They could have only had to use $32,000, then could have funded something into fiscal year 2015 to help," Sullivan said.

He said he was frustrated with how the funds became available, but it is his intention to use the funds for the next fiscal year in addition to the $125,000 in the balanced budget.

With the current town funding, Sullivan said the Spinney Branch would be closed

He said Spinney could be run by volunteers and leased out by the town on a short term lease. "I have no problem with that, but given what I've heard from the union and what we have for the funding, Spinney is not an option for the town."

Sullivan said he was approached from union representatives who "would not take kindly" to having volunteers working the library taking away jobs and would fight against any cuts.

Before Sullivan announced the library funding, Friends of Wareham Library President Priscilla Porter and longtime Onset resident Winna Dean spoke to Selectmen.

Porter said the Friends had $31,000 in funds that could only be used at the Spinney branch and that they could fund Spinney for a year with a single part-time employee.

"Even if you give us just two days a week," Dean said about keeping the Spinney branch open. "Please don't close Spinney. I'll sit in the middle of the street and I'll cry."