Duane Hicks
Budget talks between the Fort Frances library board and town reps resumed today after an initial meeting Tuesday saw the library board present council and administration with some ideas for cost savings.
“We’ve looked at our budget many, many times, trying to find savings, and we have been able to find, we think, some savings–with some hardship–we could offer to council, and not interfere negatively with our ability to provide service to the community,” library board chair Andrew Hallikas told the Times.
“We were able to say to the town, ‘We could sustain a cut of ‘X’ amount of dollars and still function without a negative effect by being creative,'” he added.
With talks still underway, Hallikas would not reveal a dollar figure at this juncture.
But he did say library board and town reps would sit down again today and go through the library’s budget line-by-line.
“We’ve looked at it so many times, we’re hoping that maybe fresh eyes might be able to see something that we’ve missed,” Hallikas noted.
“We’re hoping to find a compromise solution,” he added. “We’re willing to sustain a cut but we can’t sustain a cut of tens of thousands of dollars.
“Hopefully, we can find common ground in-between,” Hallikas said.
“But ultimately, how much the cut will be will be up to the mayor and council; that’s their decision.
“We’re just grateful they’re discussing it us with us.”
Hallikas said town reps meeting with the library board face-to-face to discuss matters “is really a laudable thing to do.”
“We had a really frank exchange of views [on Tuesday],” he noted.
“I can tell you that the library board expressed to the town reps that we completely understand the situation the town is in.
“The MPAC reassessment thing is certainly not the fault of the town and has to be addressed by the province,” Hallikas said.
