Duane Hicks
Library and town representatives were slated to meet this afternoon to begin discussing potential ways to reduce the library’s budget this year.
Library CEO Caroline Goulding and board member Kerry Zucchiatti made a presentation at yesterday afternoon’s budget meeting, during which they expressed concerns over a possible $26,000 reduction mentioned by council at a Feb. 21 meeting.
The library is aware of the present financial difficulties the town is going through, said Zucchiatti, adding the reassessment situation with MPAC is “untenable” for all communities in Ontario.
“As an entity whose funding comes primarily from the residents of Fort Frances, we are prepared to share in the financial pain,” she noted.
“If services must be cut, then we agree that we, too, should be a part of those cuts.
“The issue is to what degree?” added Zucchiatti.
The library accounts for about two percent of town expenditures and thus its share of cuts should be proportionate to that, she reasoned.
“To have to cut tens of thousands of dollars would be disastrous to our library, to the level of service that we provide to patrons, and to our community,” Zucchiatti warned.
“We have been looking at our budget and the services we provide very closely, and would like to meet with town representatives over the next few days to see if we could find a win-win situation in terms of financial cuts,” she added.
“To find a level of cost-cutting that would assist the town but would not decimate library services.”
Council agreed to the meeting, which was scheduled to take place this afternoon at the library, with Goulding and library board chair Andrew Hallikas in attendance, as well as several councillors and town administrative staff.
Meanwhile, due to further reductions in the town’s operating budget since the Feb. 21 meeting, it’s likely council won’t ask the library board to reduce its budget by the aforementioned $26,000.
Treasurer Laurie Lindberg noted the four-year average of library spending is $480,281 per year, which is about $10,000 lower than the levy it is asking for this year.
For example, the year-end cost of operating the library in 2016 was $483,667.
The levy the library board asked for last year was $493,191–a difference of about $9,500.
Coun. Wendy Brunetta suggested yesterday that since the library spent $9,500 less than it budgeted for last year, maybe it could be asked to hold its spending to that same level this year and thus not affect services too much.
