City Officials Fight Library Backers in Trenton, Suburban Chicago

August 18, 2010

With library budget woes continuing unabated in many parts of the nation, three public library systems found themselves in role-reversing showdowns with municipal officials this summer. Ironically, two libraries—those in Trenton, New Jersey, and Wheaton, Illinois—were forced to fight in favor of sharply reduced services in order to balance their budgets while city leaders ordered the libraries to maintain the status quo. In the case of Evanston (Ill.) Public Library, the library board has seized control of the EPL budget from the mayor and city council after Friends fought a months-long battle to keep the library’s only two branches open.

Of the three, the unfolding drama surrounding the future of the 250-year-old Trenton Public Library may be the most surreal. No one doubted that the city is in the throes of a severe fiscal emergency and by mid-August it had become apparent to library Director Kimberly Matthews and the library board that the system’s four branches would have to close permanently and up to 14 staff members would have to be laid off. The day before trustees were scheduled to vote, however, they were blindsided by Trenton Mayor Tony Mack, who held a press conference August 5 to assure the public that his administration was “in the process of securing private philanthropic funding” to keep the branches open part-time, according to the August 6 Trentonian.

But several days later, the mayor’s office expressed regret that the private funding had not come through while remaining adamant about maintaining branch services. After more back and forth behind closed doors as well as in the press, Mayor Mack pledged $350,000 to the library August 10 that will enable 3–7 p.m. service Monday–Friday beginning September 13—but only after shuttering the four branches beginning August 16.

While making no promises, library trustee Virginia Dietrich said in the August 11 Trentonian, “We’ve got our work cut out for us, but we would love for this to work.”

In Wheaton, Illinois, the threat of the city enacting an ordinance requiring cash-strapped Wheaton Public Library to remain open all week at least four hours per day has caused the library board to reverse its decision to close on Fridays. Trustees, who had sought to plug the $300,000 hole left in the library’s FY2011 budget were instead asking the city to restore up to $30,000 in slashed funds to pay for 4-hour service on Fridays beginning September 10. It remains to be seen whether the city will be able to afford that; officials fear a $1.3-million cut from the state income-tax fund.

Some 35 miles northeast of Wheaton, boosters of Evanston Public Library have been working since February to prove to city officials and the library board that they could raise sufficient funding to keep the city’s two branches open. Months later, enough trustees were convinced that, in a 6–2 vote August 4, the board wrested control of the library budget from the city, which is allowable under an Illinois statute permitting the establishment of a Public Library Fund. “We need a predictable, stable funding source,” trustee Susan Newman said in the August 5 Evanston Review. “We’re always strapped; the branches are always threatened, collection is down, staff is down. It’s just time for some insight and vision.”

However, Evanston Mayor Elizabeth Tisdahl seems unwilling to let the board’s vote stand; at an August 9 city council meeting, she called for September talks between trustees and the city council to “come up with a better plan for library funding,” telling the August 10 Review that they ought to be able to reach a reasonable compromise since “this is not an attempt to end the Vietnam War.”

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