MOUNT VERNON — The Public Library of Mount Vernon and Knox County has received its first payment of money from the recently passed library levy, and is back almost to normal.

Library funding comes from three sources: The 0.12-mill library passed in 1986, the recently passed 1-mill levy and state funding from the state Library Fund.

The library received an advance of 90 percent — $497,569 — of the money raised by the two levies, which come from local real estate taxes.

State funding for the year was $103,022.35 in January, which was down 15.8 percent from the previous January, and $114,516.66 for February, which was down 32.08 percent from the previous year.

Together, the money has allowed the library to restore nearly all of the cuts made to hours and services due to budgetary constraints, which came mostly from reduced state funding.

“We are doing great,” said library director John Chidester. “We’ve had our first advance on the levy proceeds. The money from the state was down compared to last year. There are two major settlements each year from the levy, but we do get other money in dribs and drabs. There is a trailer tax that comes in at a different time. There is a homestead tax that comes in from the state, which is property tax breaks that the state bears the brunt of for us. But for the most part we get [the levy money] in two big chunks.

“When we get an advance, we get 90 percent of what was collected and the rest when it all comes in,” he added.

Chidester said the library had some economies it had learned to live with during the hard time.

“But we are not going to stop being economy minded,” he said.

The money has allowed the restoration of staffing levels, hours of operation and previously existing programs.

“Virtually everyone has been rehired,” Chidester said. “Everyone who was let go because of the lack of funds has been rehired. A couple of people left us on their own, and those two are not coming back and we are only partially replacing them. So our staffing is not quite up to what it was before, but it’s very close. But after the first of the year there have been no increases.”

Chidester said the money did make up for the lack of funding last year, but that funding has been in a general decline for the last few years. He said funding for 2010 did not reach the peak year of 2002, but it did come close.

“It certainly is an improvement over the last few years,” he said. “It also means we have a materials budget so we can buy books, periodicals, DVDs, sound recordings, e-books and books on tape. To my mind that is one of the best things that is happening. So we are very close to what we would want. It’s still a streamlined economy model, but we are not as starved for monetary support as we were last year.”