Glen Ellyn Library getting tax boost for repairs
Glen Ellyn Public Library officials soon will have the $3 million they say they need to make building repairs.
The village board has agreed to borrow the money by issuing bonds, which will be repaid over 11 years.
Library board President Larry Stein said the money will allow the library to repair problems dating back to the building's construction in 1995.
"We are very pleased with the outcome," Stein said. "We have a solution that will fix the problem and prevent any errors from the past from happening again."
Stein said a consultant and project director will oversee the new construction.
The funding is included in the village's new property tax levy, which includes a 16 percent boost in the library's portion that will allow it to establish its first maintenance fund.
The village's full property tax levy next year will be $9.77 million, an increase over last year's levy of $8.88 million. The library portion of that levy, including bond payments, will climb from $3.1 million to $3.6 million.
Officials say the owner of a $500,000 home paid about $653 in property taxes to the village this year and $347 to the library; those amounts will climb next year to about $661 and $402 respectively.
Public hearings on the proposal attracted both supporters and opponents. Supporters sang the library's praises as a community asset, but detractors felt the timing isn't right for a tax increase.
Village Trustee Carl Henninger said the struggling economy will actually benefit the village in seeking bids for the project.
"There's never a good time to raise taxes and, unfortunately, we have to do that," he said. "But we're at a moment in time when a lot of the work we're bidding out is coming back way under our estimates."
When the $6.7 million library was constructed, portions were not built according to plan in an effort to keep costs down. Officials say some of the materials used at the time have contributed to damage that has over the years cost the library more than $300,000.
With no maintenance fund, the library had to dip into its cash reserves. An outside consultant estimated the work at $3 million, which includes $1.7 million on roof masonry and elevation repairs and $500,000 in heating and air conditioning work.
At the request of village President Mark Pfefferman, Stein will ask the library board to put together a committee of outside volunteers to look into the board's decision to not try to recoup some costs through insurance claims.
Village Trustee Pete Ladesic, who was the lone dissenter in the vote, said the group is a welcome addition to the process.
He said he agrees the library must be repaired but doesn't think the library board has done what it can to minimize the amount it needs to borrow.
"We are overlooking getting down to who is responsible for those construction deficiencies," he said. "Looking at the building, some minimum construction standards were not met and we are not holding anybody accountable. We may have to dig a little deeper, but I don't feel confident that has been done."
Pfefferman said he agreed with the village board's decision to issue the bonds on behalf of the library.
"I think it's criminal that it happened in the first place," Pfefferman said. "Our taxpayers were ripped off. But if we let the problems go, they just get more expensive to fix. It's our fiduciary responsibility to fix the library building."