Nevada County Picayune and Gurdon Times Newspaper Archive

Library faces funding woes

The Prescott-Nevada County Library has been operating in the red for several months and the governments in charge of the finances for that facility are holding talks to decide what should be done about the situation. The problem is apparently at least partly due to the fact that the City of Prescott hasnt paid the amount that was allotted by the Prescott City Council for operating expenses. At a meeting of the library board on May 12, Prescott Mayor Howard Taylor said the city will pay the $37,000 currently owed to the library from the 2005 budget, and will pay half the amount thats been appropriated for 2006 in July.

Nevada County Judge James Roy Brown gave some background on the situation for the benefit of the library board. Brown said that the county became qualified for the grant money that would build the library, but that he was concerned about how to pay for the upkeep of the facility.

When we were offered the money to build it, I said, We cant pay for the one weve got. Brown said. According to the original agreement, the county would furnish whatever the milage brought in and the county would pick up the rest.

Currently, .03 mills goes to the library. Brown said that an ideal situation would be to have a milage set aside that would completely fund the library. He said 1 mil would bring in about $70,000.

Thats what needs to happen, but how would you ever get it passed? he asked.

In 2005, the City of Prescott allocated $37,000, but didnt pay anything, according to Taylor. He didnt say why that situation had occurred.

Brown said the problem now is that the librarys expenses for 2005 were more than the amount the city had promised. According to Brown, the expenses were just less than $70,000 and the countys milage brought in just more than $27,000. That means that theres still more than $5,000 needed to pay the librarys expenses for 2005.

Taylor said that the city has appropriated $40,000 for the operating expenses for this year, but Brown pointed out that the library will still be in the red by the end of the year if all expenses remain constant.

Thats what theyre going to approve, Taylor said of the city board.

Brown said that one of his concerns is that the county is going to be in violation of the original agreement if it picks up any of the costs above the amount of the milage. Brown said hes looking toward the problems he expects from the auditors over the issue.

Reports indicated that Librarian Joyce Gibson was unable to attend the meeting.

The board, which apparently hadnt met in several months, looked over the librarys budget and agreed that they would question some of the expenses to see if there were places to trim the budget. They also agreed that they would look to some alternative funding sources to make up the difference.

Weve got it, said board member David Cassels. Now weve got to fund it.

The boards task at the May meeting was to accept the citys appropriated amount for 2005.

By no means do I want the board to turn down the $37,000, Brown said. But somethings going to have to happen on the rest of it.

The librarys budget has been the topic of discussion for at least two months at quorum court meetings. The county has not passed a final budget for the current year, waiting for the past expenses of the library to be resolved. The Prescott City Board was slated to meet on May 15, but after presstime.