Library move shot down

WASILLA -- A plan to move the Wasilla library into the old Sears location inside the Wasilla Carr's shopping center died in Wasilla city council chambers Monday. The plan would have doubled the library's floor space from 8,000 to 16,000 square feet, but it also would have committed the city to almost $1.3 million in new spending over the next five years, according to a report from the city finance office. The actual moving costs were $1.8 million between the current fiscal year (FY03) and 2007, but the accountants included a sale of the current library building for $500,000 in the budget projections.

Five council members voted unanimously against the lease. Council member Judy Patrick was absent. The council held a public hearing on the matter at its Sept. 9 meeting. Only four council members were present at that meeting, so a unanimous vote would have been required to approve the lease.

Supporters of the Wasilla Public Library had lobbied for the lease plan at the Sept. 9 meeting but described it as an imperfect solution. At this week's meeting, some library supporters were angry with the council and said so; others were just frustrated.

"This is the most blessed city in the country," said Jeanne Troshynski, president of Friends of the Wasilla Public Library. "You have the biggest budget and you have money left over -- that's unheard of."

But council members said they wanted a commitment from the Matanuska-Susitna Borough to increase its funding of the library if the city made a commitment to the lease agreement. The library building is city-owned, but part of a borough-wide library system. Funding and management of the library are shared between the city and the borough. The city and the Friends organization both estimate that 80 percent of library users live outside city limits.

Last year the borough paid $322,000, which was about 55 percent of the library budget. That number has remained the same since 1998. The city paid approximately $230,000, or 40 percent of the budget, and the remaining five percent was made up with other revenue sources. If the council had passed the lease plan, Wasilla's share would have increased to 60 percent in the current fiscal year and almost 70 percent each year for the next five years, according to city budget estimates that assumed the borough contribution of $322,000 would not increase.

At the Sept. 9 meeting, borough assembly member Dan Kelly -- who is on the ballot for the Wasilla mayor's race next Tuesday -- asked the council to postpone the decision so they could hear from Borough Manager John Duffy at the next meeting.

Duffy did show this week, but the council didn't get an offer of increased borough funding. Instead, there was an hour-long question and answer session in which Duffy talked about library missions and explained how the borough finances its libraries. Duffy said some technology grants and other funds can be available for specific programs within a new larger library, but he also pointed out that the city and the borough have never worked out a long-term plan for the Wasilla library.

"The only time it's really come up in the past is during the budget process, and no one has talked about long-term financing. They've only talked about this year's funding -- and that's not the way to do it," Duffy said. Duffy also said a new library could be five to seven years away.

"My hope in postponing this last meeting was that the borough would be coming forward with a commitment," council member Noel Lowe said Monday. "The impression that I got from Dan [Kelly] was that the timing was much shorter than five to seven years."

The borough collects library operating funds through a .443 mil levy on non-areawide property taxes. But non-area wide taxes are not charged on property within city limits, so their use is limited to areas outside city limits.

"Even if we could use non-areawide funds to fund libraries in the cities -- in Houston, Palmer and Wasilla -- there's only a small amount of money and a lot of competition for it," Duffy said. "You need a new library here. We need one in Sutton and we also need to expand the facilities in Willow and Talkeetna."

Kelly spoke at both meetings when the library lease came up, but he didn't ask the council to vote either way. On Wednesday, Kelly said he was "cautious but supportive" of the lease.

"I supported the idea and wanted to see them go forward with it so we could have a decent library for the next few years," Kelly said.

Kelly said he had scheduled a joint session between the borough assembly and the city council for next January to seek a long-term library solution. Kelly was critical of the city's recent history of library funding.

"The city of Wasilla lowered [its property tax] mil rate from 0.9 to 0.5 last year. That's about $250,000 by my estimation. Now that's the money that they needed for the library," Kelly said. "To me that was a mistake."

In comments after the meeting, council member and mayoral candidate Dianne Keller told the audience that the council is responsible for all city functions -- she pointed out that the council had approved $120,000 in emergency spending for a city water tower at the same meeting.

"I think it's important that the city fund the library, but not over-extend itself," Keller said. "Maybe someone could die if they didn't have access to a library, but I think it's a lot more likely that someone will die if they don't have access to water."