(BROCKPORT, N.Y)- Three local municipality boards met for a special meeting Tuesday, May 22nd, 2018 to discuss the financial fate of the Brockport-Seymour Library.
The boards decided to consider hiring a business consultant for the library after meeting with the library board at Sweden Town Park Lodge to go over potential budgets for 2019. Library Director Carl Gouveia presented three “dream” budgets that would allow the library to maintain longer hours of operation, fix technical problems with lighting and potentially remodel the now 20 year old building.
The library boasts 9,806 registered borrowers, which breaks down to an average 400 visitors a day and roughly 376 items borrowed per day. Their literacy programming ranges from early childhood storytime to teen reading clubs and all-age summer reading.
These proposed “dream” budgets were heavily discussed and questioned by the municipal boards. A main concern involved the already high tax rates, and that the bottom line for the various proposed budgets may demand that rates are pushed higher than they should be for the 2019 year.
Members of the library board assured the municipal boards that they were doing everything in their power to currently cut costs- including the admission that most employees worked part time to avoid health insurance costs, and that Gouveia himself waved his own benefits in favor of his wife’s plan to try to benefit the library’s financial state.
Discussion finally led to the decision to create a committee with members from all three municipalities and library board members to consider hiring a professional business consultant for the library to analyze current spending and make proposals in regards to moving forward with a budget. The committee will also consider finding grants to help curb costs of the business consultant, should that be the ultimate decision of the committee.
Updates are expected within the coming weeks as the boards all meet separate and appoint new committee members.