Batavia unsure it should give library $100,000 for stairs, other work
Batavia aldermen like the Batavia Public Library's effort to connect better to the rest of the downtown, through renovations to its campus. But whether the city should chip in $100,000 toward the work - and how - is up for debate.
Revamping an outdoor staircase at Wilson and Water streets, to make the top of it wider so people can see the library's Reading Garden, is a good idea, aldermen said at a committee meeting this week. It should encourage people to walk to and from the library and shops, the Fox River and other amenities, they said. The stair work is part of $938,000 in exterior renovations and repairs.
But helping the library pay for the work out of money collected in a tax increment financing fund gives some aldermen pause.
The $100,000 grant would come out of the TIF District 3 fund.
Aldermen questioned it for several reasons.
1. The library is not in TIF District 3. It is in TIF District 2, which is inactive. TIF 2 is also known as the Batavia Junior High School Redevelopment Area TIF. But the library built on the site of the old junior high in 2002.
2. The library doesn't pay property taxes. The purpose of a TIF fund is to pay for infrastructure improvements that will raise the value of properties in the district, thereby leading to increased property taxes. But some taxes going to local governments are diverted in the meantime.
3. The city has other projects that will need TIF District 3 money, including the Walgreens redevelopment and the Houston Street streetscape work.
"This strengthens the library and strengthens us to have an institution in the downtown," City Administrator Bill McGrath said, presenting the case for giving the grant. "The library is probably the biggest individual draw of people to this downtown."
Alderman Nick Cerone was the first of at least five aldermen to say he was undecided.
"I'm a big fan of the library, but am concerned about using TIF money. You are not going to really see a return," he said. Aldermen Marty Callahan, Jamie Saam, Carl Fischer and Kyle Hohmann also said they were on the fence about it.
Aldermen Dave Brown and Alan Wolff were fine with it, with Wolff saying the council probably wouldn't have questioned the request at all if it had been made when the Wilson Street streetscape work was being done two years ago.
A staff memo also points out that the library's property taxes on properties in TIF 3 were frozen when the TIF was established. Giving the money could make up for that, it said.
Saam suggested giving the money out of the city's general fund. Specifically, it could use some of the $672,000 it received from selling land on Kirk Road where a gasoline station is to be built. The city received the land as a gift. Several aldermen said they liked that idea.
But Brown cautioned the council about whittling away the windfall. "We all had ideas (for it)," he said. Wolff noted the council had talked in February about using the land-sale money to pay for a study of the riverfront.
The council directed administrators to see whether it could use the land-sale money. It will discuss the matter more at its committee meeting Tuesday.