The William F. Laman Public Library System in North Little Rock will undergo major reductions in staff, operating hours and gallery exhibits at its main library and the downtown Argenta Branch because of financial difficulties, library administrators said Friday.
Library times will be cut starting Dec. 1, said Mary Furlough, the Laman Library System's interim director. Also, Sunday operation at the main library, 2801 Orange St., and Saturday hours at the Argenta Branch, 420 Main St., will be discontinued as of Dec. 1. The Argenta Branch isn't currently open on Sundays.
Cutbacks will hit the library staff, too, with 11 of the library system's 45 staff positions --about one-quarter of the staff, being eliminated as of Jan. 1 -- Furlough said. Community programs at both libraries will also be cut back or end as a result, she said.
"We are doing the things we have to do to minimize the financial burden the library is under right now," Furlough said.
The library's $3.2 million annual budget is supported by property taxes and library fees and other revenue. The system doesn't receive any city funding for its operating expenses. The Laman Library System is separate from the Central Arkansas Library System based in Little Rock.
Ron Oliver, chairman of the Laman Library board of trustees, said Friday that the system's finances are being strained by three bond payments due next month and unexpected costs regarding the Argenta Branch, which opened in April after the $3.5 million renovation of the 83-year-old, former post office building. The cost includes the $775,000 purchase price.
The bond payments total about $683,000, Furlough said. Two bond payments on the Argenta property -- one for its purchase and one for renovation -- will be $413,000 together, she said. A $270,000 bond payment is also due from the main library's latest renovation from 2009.
"I think the good news is it appears we have the money to pay everything," Oliver said. "The bad news is we won't have much left after that. It appears to me too much was spent on the downtown branch. We've been running into problems with that old building. They kept telling us that we'd run into heating and air-conditioning problems that we didn't anticipate. It's been constantly something over there."
The library's board approved buying the former post office in 2012 after the post office closed there in June of that year. Because of the short time period the U.S. Postal Service allowed bids on the property, the North Little Rock City Council lent the library system the money to buy the building in August 2012. The money was repaid to the city by that year's end.
The library system is in the process of paying off a 10-year bond issue through the city's Public Building Authority for the Argenta branch renovations.
"The Argenta Branch cost much more than we expected," said Furlough, who has taken over for Executive Director Jeff Baskin, who died Sept. 9, about eight weeks after he learned he had cancer. "It really did deplete the budget. It was nothing that was anticipated."
North Little Rock Mayor Joe Smith said Friday that he supported the library board and Furlough, saying all had "very large shoes to fill that Jeff left behind."
"I've told them that whatever they need from me, I'm there for them," Smith said. "They've come together and worked really hard and really close together to try to keep the momentum Jeff created there going."
The mayor added that it would be important for the library to keep its ability in its budget to "advertise and communicate" to the public all of what the library has to offer to the community.
"Let's don't be penny-wise and dollar-foolish," Smith said he's told trustees. "You have to spend some money to let people know what's going on."
Starting Dec. 1, the main library hours will be 10 a.m.-7 p.m. Monday-Thursday, shortened from the current 9 a.m.-9 p.m. The Friday and Saturday hours will remain 9 a.m.-5 p.m. The main library will no longer be open 1 p.m.-5 p.m. on Sundays, a weekly total of 16 less hours of operating time all together.
The Argenta Branch hours will remain 10 a.m.-6 p.m. Monday-Friday, but the branch will no longer be open from 10 a.m.-6 p.m. on Saturday, a cutback of eight hours of operation.
Library community events won't be offered any longer in the evenings or on weekends, Furlough said, a move that appears to eliminate such programs as Live at Laman music concerts during the summer, Lamanpalooza on a weekend every August and weeknight seminars featuring authors or documentary movies. All programs have been free and open to the public.
"We can't help but affect some of them that start at 7 o'clock," she said.
The biggest change in programming will be the discontinuance of national museum-quality exhibits at the library's main branch exhibit hall and at the smaller Argenta gallery area. Having such exhibits allowed many in the North Little Rock community to experience museum-type exhibits they might not otherwise see, while also attracting more visitors to the libraries, library officials have said. Such exhibits could cost as much as $7,000 to $8,000 in rental fees.
Exhibits from national tours sponsored by the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History, the Mid-America Arts Alliance and others drew more than 23,000 to the main library gallery in 2013, according to library figures. The number included more than 8,000 visitors over three months to the World Trade Center Recovery Operations Exhibit that documented the sorting of debris from the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attack on the World Trade Center in New York.
"We've talked about spotlighting local artists and want to see if some of them would put on exhibits for us," Furlough said of how the galleries will be utilized in the immediate future. "We want to make sure we have quality exhibits in there. It's not financially workable [to continue national exhibits]."
Oliver, the library board chairman, said that the library will work to uphold the trust and support from the community and city government as it works through the decrease in offerings to the public.
"The library serves a great purpose to the people," Oliver said. "The city administration and the voters have always been very kind to us. We want to make sure that trust is justified."
A section on 11/22/2014