Library calls on city to increase funding

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This article was published 14/12/2017 (2324 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

The Jake Epp Library needs an operating grant increase, according to a presentation to city council this week.

Head librarian Carolyn Graham and board chair Daryl Braun detailed a five-year funding plan at city council’s Tuesday committee meeting.

Braun explained book prices have risen by more than 30 percent, prompting a decrease in the number of new titles acquired—a change he said patrons have noticed.

Evening staff have also been reduced from three to two, Graham said, while staff computers and the library’s server are also aging.

Yet Graham noted the number of physical items checked out during the first 11 months of 2017 has risen to 219,000, up from 206,000 over the same period last year.

“I really believe at the bottom of my heart that if Jake Epp Library is diminished—if we lower our service, if we cut programs, if we reduce staff—our city as a whole will be hurt in tangible ways,” she told council.

The library’s current net operating grant stands at $187,315. The board would like to see an increase of three to four percent, Graham later said.

A census-related bump in provincial per capita funding will provide roughly $19,000 more annually for the library, she added.

Council discussion quickly turned to regionalization. Mayor Chris Goertzen said the question of RM of Hanover support of Jake Epp Library will be added to the January agenda of the Steinbach-Hanover joint action committee.

Graham later said that while Hanover’s annual block grant of $3,400 has remained static for 17 years, its ratepayers accounted for the lion’s share of non-resident library memberships sold in recent years. However, the block grant figure excludes the $30 refund offered by the RM of Hanover to ratepayers who purchase a $95 non-resident membership.

After the presentation, Goertzen acknowledged the twin pressures of inflation and population growth.

“We do know that inflation affects us as a municipality, and it affects organizations as well,” he said. “Predictability is important for all of us.”

“Inflation and costs increase as our population increases,” he continued. “We do need to look at that carefully, making sure that we’re giving them adequate funds to function well, and to the standard that citizens accept.”

City council chose not to link annual operating grants to inflation out of a desire to avoid recurring mill rate hikes, he explained.

“We’ve held the line on taxes for a number of years, and to do that, council felt it was important that we maintain the dollars that we give in grants at a static level.”