Library Bookmarks $2.5 Million Funding Bump
A posh fundraiser for Mayor Anthony Foxx reportedly snagged a cool $140,000 this week, while the Mecklenburg Board of County Commissioners managed to save a tepid $137,000 by approving the consolidation of some library services. Super.
The consolidation plan will roll the library system’s human resources, technology, and capital project management departments under the umbrella of the county manager and existing county departments, and eliminate all of two library positions while transferring 10 to the county.
Meanwhile, acting on the recommendations of the vaunted Future of the Library Task Force, a committee of library trustees and county commissioners has recommended the county set a goal of funding the library system to the tune of $27.89 to $28.66 per capita, based on the county’s population, up from the current $25.84 per capita. That translates into giving an additional $1.8 million to $2.5 million to the library, over its current county funding of about $21 million. The recommended bump would bring the CharMeck library system up to a funding level comparable to 13 of its peers around the nation, according to the task force’s report. The additional funding would allow the system to keep open 20 branches and increase hours at the regional branches.
County commissioners this week unanimously approved accepting the task force and study committee’s recommendations for consideration as they weigh budget options. A final decision on funding won’t be reached until the board votes on its budget in June.
Until then, expect a whole hoopla of community outcry, replete with raucous lobbying efforts to pack the government center full of forlorn children and folks waving hand-painted signs to give the library system more money. A stroke of brilliance from the library study committee, which was also approved by county commissioners, all but guaranteed it.
The committee, which was comprised of commissioners Dumont Clarke, Harold Cogdell and Karen Bentley and library trustees Molly Griffin, Bob Sink and Darrel Williams, tweaked a recommendation from the library task force that would have protected three branch libraries (Scaleybark, Sugar Creek and West Boulevard) in so-called fragile neighborhoods from closure if funding runs tight.
The study committee instead recommended that any decisions about closing branches be guided by a variety of factors such as a branch’s distance to a regional library, its overall usage by the public, and the economic and educational opportunities available to communities surrounding a branch location.
Because the three libraries that were originally recommended for shuttering sanctuary ranked low on usage rates, they could be back in play as candidates for closure. Unless, of course, the library system receives the additional funding needed to keep all the branches open. So expect a full-court press from those fragile neighborhoods, pushing the board of commissioners to fork over the extra $2.5 million in funding.
Maybe they should contact Mayor Foxx about a fundraiser. He’s supposed to be pretty good at that kind of thing.
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