It’s a perennial question in the Valley, and one that has returned to the forefront now that Wasilla is weighing options for a new library.
In a nutshell, the problem is this: Palmer and Wasilla each have their own libraries. Then there’s a small network of borough libraries for outlying communities. People who live outside of city limits often come into town to use library resources. Since borough residents are benefiting from city programs, that means the borough should shoulder some of that load, the cities say, including paying some of those costs. Lately, the borough hasn’t been doing that, at least not to the degree it once did.
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Palmer City Councilman Mike Chmielewski compared the problem to a “low-grade infection,” something that’s always in the background but that crops up from time to time. His colleague on the council, Kevin Brown, backed him up.
“We poke at it with a stick for awhile and then we all walk away,” Brown said. ”I would like a commitment by this group that we will work on this.”
Assemblywoman Cindy Bettine said one of the simplest solutions would be for the borough to take over the cities’ libraries. Chmielewski wasn’t too keen on that; the Palmer library, he said, is a cultural center for the community. Wasilla was also not on board.
“The city of Wasilla does not want to give up (library) powers,” Mayor Verne Rupright said.
Assemblywoman Lynne Woods pointed out that the money the borough used to give the cities for their libraries was a block grant taken out of the general fund. Though the borough collects taxes for libraries, it goes into a fund the borough can’t dip into to hand over to the city.
So what’s the solution?
Houston doesn’t have a library, but Mayor Roger Purcell put out an idea that Rupright and Wasilla Councilwoman Leone Harris seemed amenable to.
Essentially, Purcell said, the borough could treat libraries the same way it treats rescue service in Houston and Palmer. Those services, Purcell said, work on a lease agreement; the borough pays to lease space from the cities.
“The mill rate, the amount they charge for the mill rate inside the city would then be used in a payback agreement, a lease agreement,” Purcell said.
Rescue and ambulance services, he said, are paid for out of those same funds Woods said couldn’t be handed over to the city.
But Bettine said she didn’t want to see the bodies close off the option of the borough taking over the libraries. Without that, she said, the problem will only be temporarily solved and likely will crop up again once new members are elected to the assembly.
“Five assemblies from now they’re going to be cutting their budgets,” and libraries, generally, are among the first places assemblies look.
She said it might not be a bad thing to ask voters to decide the question.
Contact Andrew Wellner at andrew.wellner@frontiersman.com or 352-2270.
Comments
17 comment(s)For Libraries wrote on Feb 17, 2010 9:57 PM:
StraightFacts2 wrote on Feb 17, 2010 9:50 PM:
StraightFacts wrote on Feb 17, 2010 9:43 PM:
GranMac wrote on Feb 17, 2010 4:35 PM:
TTOSBT wrote on Feb 17, 2010 10:03 AM:
Obsurd wrote on Feb 17, 2010 8:29 AM:
Equity wrote on Feb 16, 2010 5:23 PM:
Schools using library for free wrote on Feb 16, 2010 4:29 PM:
LIbrary material outdated wrote on Feb 16, 2010 4:25 PM:
ken widmer wrote on Feb 16, 2010 11:25 AM:
Wasilla taxpayer wrote on Feb 16, 2010 10:43 AM:
Cindy Bettine's idea that the borough should take over is as mis-guided as the rest of her priorities. She is badly out of touch with the people she is supposed to represent. "
allisaw wrote on Feb 16, 2010 8:27 AM:
stepnorth wrote on Feb 16, 2010 7:20 AM:
economics wrote on Feb 16, 2010 7:05 AM:
Wait a minute wrote on Feb 16, 2010 5:36 AM:
Bettini wrote on Feb 15, 2010 10:53 PM:
SallyJoe wrote on Feb 15, 2010 9:37 PM:
Wasilla has enough funds to buy its own "