Talk in Valley turns bookish

MAT-SU -- How should local libraries address the changing need of community members? Has the Valley grown to the extent that it needs a centrally-located core area library? If so, where would it be placed? And is it equitable to ask area cities to shoulder more than half the budget for libraries, when up to 80 percent of the patronage comes from people living outside the city limits?

These are just a few of the issues that will be addressed at the Thursday joint meeting between city and council members from the cities of Palmer and Wasilla, and borough officials and assembly members.

The meeting will be held at 6 p.m. at the Palmer Depot, and it's slated to be a work session between the three groups to take a good look at where borough libraries are now, where they should be headed and how to get there. Libraries, Duffy said, will be an area of focus for the assembly during the upcoming budget cycle. Last year, Duffy explained, urgent needs in the Emergency Services department were addressed and funding was allocated to help that department through reorganization. This year, Duffy said, the focus will be on libraries.

The work session, Duffy said, will kick off with a presentation of how the library has worked over the past five years. Circulation, holdings and funding for the past five years will be discussed, and whether past policies have been effective.

Criteria for determining whether a new library is needed in the borough will also be discussed, as will the list of proposed capital improvement projects slated for the coming few years. Expansion at the Sutton library, a new core area library and other basic needs will be presented, Duffy said.

Funding will be one of the primary topics at the meeting, Duffy said. And that's beneficial, as both Wasilla Mayor Dianne Keller and Tom Healy, Palmer's city manager said they hoped to address funding issues and look for ways to bridge what they perceive as a funding gap at the meeting.

The way the funding is presently structured, the cities receive a grant of sorts from the borough -- about 50 percent for both cities, and that money is eventually incorporated into their library budgets. When they recently completed their budget cycle for the year, Healy said Palmer received about $195,000 from the borough to fit the city's library budget of more than $470,000. Wasilla received a borough contribution of $322,000 toward their city budget of about $633,000.

Both city officials said the amount of funding provided by the borough did not represent patronage numbers. Both cities have, in the past, said about 80 percent of their patronage comes from residents outside the city limits.

Duffy said he believes borough officials have reached a conclusion that will help bring equity to the library funding method.

"We've come up with something that we think is fair," Duffy said. "We think that, this year, we'll have a reasonable allocation in place."