FAYETTEVILLE -- The public library's struggle to maintain its current services and programs and its separate, on-hold plan to expand might not be so separate after all, library officials said Tuesday.
During the past few months' search for new revenue sources, members of the library's long-term revenue committee have tried to divorce the two issues, essentially saying they want to focus on the library's finances today before worrying about tomorrow's big projects. But their meeting Tuesday brought calls for a broader perspective to tackle both issues for good and win over voters who must cover at least part of the bill.
Meeting information
The Fayetteville Public Library’s long-term revenue committee plans to meet again March 24 in the afternoon at the library, at the intersection of West Mountain Street and South School Avenue near downtown.
Source: Staff report
"I keep coming back to what the term 'long-term' means," said library executive director David Johnson, who takes part in the committee's discussions. "Where are we headed in the larger arc of our story?"
He cited the facility's 2030 master plan, which attempts to predict what Fayetteville will want and expect of its library when the city houses twice as many people. The proposed 88,000-square-foot expansion into the nearby old City Hospital land was meant to meet those future needs.
Johnson previously has said the project will wait until after current finances are strengthened. The library isn't out of money, but the area's demand for material and programs and maintenance needs are outpacing income.
This year's $4 million budget trimmed $200,000 from last year's when projected cost increases and new programs should have increased it by $300,000 instead. The library's accounting manager expects this $500,000 gap to triple in the next five years without some new source of money.
The committee has talked about an increase in the library's one mill of property tax money, new or higher fees and more spending cuts as ways to bandage the issue. Members expect to recommend any or all of those options to the library's board next month. Several members have said they want to pursue at least some cuts, while others said a solution must be more durable.
The expansion, on the other hand, would likely need its own voter-approved millage increase or bond issue to cover its costs, Johnson has said. Maybe the new revenue search and expansion should therefore be treated as pieces of a single, larger plan for voters to consider, he and some committee members said Tuesday.
"The last sales tax, what people saw was a grand view," said committee member Dan Ferritor, referring to the temporary tax approved overwhelmingly 15 years ago to build the facility. Focusing on simple maintenance of an existing building is "not sexy," he said.
Combining the two issues doesn't necessarily mean asking for everything at once, though that's possible, Johnson said. The library could ask for one more mill this year, begin fundraising for the expansion next year and ask for another mill years from now, for example.
"We agree that we want to do both" long-term and short-term planning, committee chairwoman Janine Parry said.
Dan Holtmeyer can be reached at [email protected] and on Twitter @NWADanH.
NW News on 03/11/2015