Funding cuts may make Wheaton library less than excellent

Repeated budget cuts already have cost Wheaton Public Library its rank as one of the top public libraries in nation, its leaders say.

Now library officials fear a plan to once again slash annual funding by $300,000 will result in a visible "cut back on basic services to the community."

"We are aware that the council has difficult decisions ahead of it," library board members said in a letter presented this week to the Wheaton City Council. "But an additional $300,000 reduction in funding ... will force the library now to move from excellence to something visibly less. In these troubled times, our library is more important than ever to the citizens of this community."

The three-page plea comes less than a month after library officials publicly urged city council members to leave the library's funding levels unchanged.

Library board President Colleen McLaughlin said the follow-up letter is a response to Mayor Michael Gresk advising her that he expects the city council to reduce the library's total property tax allocation to about $3.1 million.

"In light of the fact that he basically said prepare your budget with this $300,000 cut in mind, I think it's a pretty clear indication that we're facing a challenge in terms of maintaining the level of funding that we had in the past," McLaughlin said Wednesday.

Gresk stressed that it will be months before a final decision is made.

But facing a projected $1.5 million deficit in the 2010-2011 budget, city officials are talking about the need to lower spending or increase taxes next year. Reducing the library's property tax allocation is one possibility.

"We need to keep all of our options open," Gresk said. "The library is an incredibly important part of our daily life in Wheaton. But we have to balance that service with the health and safety services that keep the city functioning."

While library officials acknowledge that city leaders have tough decisions to make, they say the library is Wheaton's "most visible and utilized public building," averaging more than 50,000 visitors a month.

Meanwhile, the library implemented a variety of spending cuts after its funding was cut by $300,000 last year.

As a result, the library is closed on Friday evenings, department heads' salaries are frozen and there's less money to purchase books, periodicals and audiovisual materials.

Now library officials could be forced to cut staff and further reduce the total number of hours the building is open.

"It's a big building," McLaughlin said. "You have to have so many people in the building to really monitor it."

But if the city council approves the funding cut, the library's property tax allocation will fall to what it was in 2001.

"It's hard to maintain the standards of excellence that we achieved over the years," McLaughlin said. "We just want to make sure the city council takes into account the importance of the library to the community."