Duane Hicks
The Fort Frances Public Library Technology Centre board is being asked to trim its budget this year.
Town council agreed last week that the library should limit its budget increase to 1.5 percent.
In the most recent library budget submitted to council, it shows an operating forecast of $504,010—a 3.71 percent (or $18,035) jump over last year.
Council decided last Thursday that it would like to see the hike reeled in to be $493,265, reflecting a 1.5 percent cost-of-living increase ($7,290 more than last year).
The decision came after a long discussion about how the library’s budget gradually increases year after year.
“I think that we, as council, have been accommodating,” said Mayor Roy Avis.
“We like to see a nice facility in the community; we like to see the best programming possible,” he noted.
But over the years, town council has made cost-saving suggestions such as sharing an IT (Internet technology) person, which the library board has turned down.
At the same time, the library has introduced more and more programming that costs money but does not generate revenue, the mayor added.
“When the word ‘free’ comes out, somebody has to pay,” Mayor Avis explained, later adding that “if you haven’t got a revenue stream, you shouldn’t do the programming.”
The mayor suggested perhaps there should be a fee-for-service for some library programs.
For instance, if an individual comes in to use a computer, they could pay a fee.
This, in turn, would help offset IT costs, which are ongoing and expensive.
Mayor Avis also felt there continues to be an inequity with how Fort Frances households pay $132 toward the library each year but non-residents, such as those in Alberton, which now has a user agreement with the local library, have paid just $70 per household in the past.
“There doesn’t appear to be any fairness there to me,” he stressed.
“We have the asset.”
Mayor Avis added if council continually approves the library board budget (with a 3.5 increase this year and presumably equal-sized increases going forward), “we can’t afford it; the Town of Fort Frances cannot afford to continue doing that.”
The majority of council agreed the budget increase be limited to 1.5 percent. And if the library board wants more, it should come to council to explain why.
After nearly an hour of discussion, Coun. June Caul said council should stop complaining about the library board and its budgeting, and instead should communicate with it directly.
“I think they would be more than willing to come forward and sit down with us and hash things out,” she remarked.
“I listen to you all around the table and sometimes I just feel like walking out of the room because I hear every single person saying the exact same thing,” added Coun. Caul.
“We spend more doggone time sitting around this table listening to the same stories umpteen times. . . .
“I do not agree with the fact they will not sit down with us if we ask them to,” she added. “I do believe that they will try and do what they can.
“And I don’t think they’ve been asked to do that before necessarily, in a proper way. . . .
“Bring them in and talk to them,” Coun. Caul stressed.
Library CEO Alicia Subnaik Kilgour and library board chair Andrew Hallikas will be asked to come to the April 4 budget meeting to talk more about the library’s budget.
