Elburn library can feel for plight of Sugar Grove's

Voters rejected an increase in the operating budget for the Sugar Grove Public Library for the sixth straight time last week, despite a definite site for the new $8 million library.

Library officials are now debating whether to put the question on the ballot again in November.

Mary Lynn Alms, director of the Town and Country Library just 10 miles away in Elburn, can sympathize with what Sugar Grove library officials are going through now. It took her library nine tries to get voter approval for a bigger budget. It finally happened in March 2006, nearly six years after Elburn's new library opened.

What made the difference?

"There doesn't seem to be any magic formula," said Alms, the Elburn library's director for the past 27 years. "If I knew, I could probably go on all the talk shows."

"We tried all kinds of ways," she added. "We had ballots in the spring and in the fall. We had the question on ballots that were full and when there wasn't much to vote on. We thought that being in the new building would do it, but it still took a while."

Elburn voters may have responded to cuts in services, Alms said. The Town and Country Library reduced hours of operation early in 2006, just months before voters finally approved an increase of 6 cents per $100 of equalized assessed valuation.

Alms offered some advice to Sugar Grove library officials.

"They need to just keep on trying," she said. "I'm sure it will pass. They can't operate a building the size of their new library with their current tax rate."

After the latest disappointment, Sugar Grove Library Director Beverly Holmes Hughes said she will recommend that the board place the question on the ballot in November, although it has yet to be decided how much of an increase the library will request.

The Sugar Grove library's latest request was for a rate increase to 25 cents per $100 of equalized assessed valuation, a substantial leap from the current rate of about 9 cents.

For owners of a $250,000 home, it would have meant an increase of $130 the first year. For comparison's sake, the boost in Elburn in 2006 meant an increase of only $50 to a home of the same value.

It's likely that Hughes, the library board and its boosters will keep trying.

"We have an obligation under Illinois law to maintain levels of service," Hughes said. "We need to have the operating funds to do this. It's not just what's right for the community; we're doing our jobs."

Hughes is glad that voters approved an increase in funding for the Kaneland school district, and she is aware that some voters may have made an "either/or" choice. But she noted that good schools and a good library go "hand in hand" for a community.

"We'll still be working diligently, and we are happy to talk to anyone with questions," Hughes said. "Sadly, the models for success show that it definitely takes time."