Naperville police, libraries to cut programs

Naperville's police department and libraries are cutting programs for residents in light of the city's budget woes.

The police department can no longer afford to staff programs like Neighborhood Watch while the libraries will reduce computer training classes and book clubs.

They were among nine groups under the city's budget umbrella that made presentations to councilmen Monday.

The city originally was facing an $11 million shortfall for the new fiscal year that begins in May. By eliminating 43 jobs - 23 of which already were vacant - and additional expense reductions, city staff have presented councilmen with a budget that not only is balanced, but has a $1 million cushion.

Police Chief David Dial said his department will be focused on core services - patrol and investigation.

"With the decrease in manpower and an increase in the calls for service, naturally it makes it harder to get to those calls so that's what we're focusing on as opposed to putting our resources into community presentations," he said.

In recent months the department has reduced the hours of operation at its records division and Community Connection, the city's satellite office. The police department will not staff the third downtown beat officer position the council previously approved and has eliminated its domestic violence investigator position.

Because the department's two crime prevention officer positions also were eliminated, about a dozen programs and presentations have hit the chopping block including Neighborhood Watch, National Night Out and Operation Identification.

Police may have an extra set of eyes by this summer, however. The city plans to install a surveillance camera at the intersection of Washington Street and Chicago Avenue in the heart of downtown. The funds for the camera will come out of the city's information technology budget and already were approved for the current fiscal year.

The city also has budgeted for additional red light cameras pending council approval. The first set of cameras recently began operating at Route 59 and North Aurora Road and are catching about 31 violators per day.

Another area where citizens may notice a difference in service levels is the Naperville Public Library system. The libraries have reduced their tax rate by 10.9 percent, cutting $1.5 million.

Hours at the libraries will remain the same, but reductions in staffing levels will mean lag time in getting books back on the shelves. Cuts to the materials budget will mean fewer titles available and fewer electronic databases.

The libraries also will reduce the number of book clubs and early literacy support programs and eliminate computer training classes and other professional presenters.

Executive Director Donna Dziedzic said the library system has received several national honors putting it among the best in the nation but the proposed changes to service levels "have begun to cut into the muscle of our services."

"Eventually we're going to see some significant reduction in satisfaction levels," she said. "We have not even announced our budget cuts publicly and we have already begun to receive concern from people, particularly in this area of reductions of public programming."

The city's final budget workshop will be held at 3:30 p.m. Monday, March 23, at the Municipal Center, 400 S. Eagle St. There will be a public hearing on the budget Wednesday, April 8, followed by a vote by the council Tuesday, April 21.