Library to Lay Off Five, Close on Sundays

Garden City Library board chair Randy Colahan said Monday night's special meeting of the board may have been the shortest on record but it was certainly the most difficult as trustees attempted to close a $234,638 budget gap.

"None of us want to be here tonight doing this," Colahan said. "None of us are happy doing this but unfortunately we're given the money and we need to allocate it. We have to do our job as trustees and unfortunately that's what we're doing tonight ... Our budget is already 13.5 percent lower than it was four years ago. That is why this is such a difficult time for us."

Everything was on the table.

After voting 4-0 (trustee John Schultz was not present) to approve the 2013-14 budget totaling $3,238,209, of which $3,117,335 is contributed by the village, trustees unanimously voted to lay off three part-time typist clerk positions, one full-time typist-clerk position (35 hours/week) and one full-time maintainer (40 hours/week).

These positions will be abolished effective May 31. The board asked library director Carolyn Voegler to announce the cuts at a Tuesday morning staff meeting.

The board also voted to close the library on Sundays, a move that could save roughly $29,000 according to trustee Jack Pascal; increase overdue fines by .25 cents per day; which could generate $37,000 in revenue, Pascal said; and charge for paper in all the computer rooms for those who need to make copies, a suggestion by this year's Citizens Budget Review Advisory Committee (CBRAC). This last action could generate $3,000 in revenue, Colahan said.

Charging for DVDs was "off the table" after trustees were informed that it's actually a violation of Indian Reservation Education Law. "We will not be charging for DVDs because otherwise we'd be in violation of the law," Colahan said. The library, years ago, did charge $1 for DVDs but regulations have since changed.

Pascal, who participated in his last meeting since announcing his retirement from the board after a decade's worth of service, also recommended looking more closely at possible reductions in library materials.

Trustee Gloria Weinrich, however, didn't want library materials reduced again. "We have reduced them for three consecrative years and I believe that a library should have materials. You can't just keep cutting them out year after year," she said.

"I am so tired of people coming to me and saying 'I went to Elmont, what a beautiful library. I went to Williston, what a beautiful library.' To have to hear this when I've dedicated nine years on the board and many more years to the library before that and then to see that we are being cut to the point where we have trouble operating I think there's something wrong in Garden City."

Trustee Barbara Brudie-Martis, who announced her resignation from the board last month, agreed, adding, "The way information changes it's imperative we have up-to-date information available to the public."

She said having outdated resources is really a "disincentive" in terms of children developing an appreciation for reading and education. "It just flies in the face of everything our mission is about, which is to inform people," she said.

Three years ago the library had 24 employees; currently, the library has 21 employees. The library is currently open 57.5 hours per week. Three years ago the part-time budget was in excess of $300,000, according to Pascal. "Now it's $147,000," he said, adding that the library's requested overtime budget is a minimal $11,000 thanks to Voegler, whom Pascal said has managed staff down to the "bare minimum."

Pascal argued that when trying to close such a large gap a reduction in library materials must remain an open issue. "We're going to have to do some substantial cuts and those cuts are going to affect the community in terms of service. When we get into the discussion of where those cuts are going to take place I'd like to keep materials on the table because we've got a trade off here. Maybe someone will speak up about the shortages that exist … We have to take some drastic measures."

Pascal added that use of the National Library System (NLS) could help patrons looking for materials the Garden City Library might not have. "We could have it delivered. The pain to the patron may be a couple of days but we're going to have to trade that off against the services that are going to be diminished as we start to reduce the number of people that we have here."

Brudie-Martis said NLS is not necessarily the answer. "As a Mom who, like all other parents, finds out the night before a paper is due comes running over to find the books that you need or the five books you need for a bibliography and to find out they can be ordered from Farmingdale or points all around Nassau County it's not always effective," she said.

Weinrich said people are just not thinking ahead. "They're thinking dollars and cents and they're not thinking people," she said.

Trustee Brian Daughney, who serves as village board liaison to the library, was brief in his remarks, stating, "We're all under tight budgets and we're trying to respond to what residents ask which is keep taxes low."