On May 15, community members in the Holley Central School District will vote on the school budget and three propositions. Proposition 3 is the annual budget for the Community Free Library.
Taxpayers will notice that there is a significant increase in the library budget. Why is there this increase?
In 2017 the Community Free Library received a $20,000 grant from Senator Robert Ortt. The library used this funding to add a part-time Children’s Librarian position and expand programs for teens and adults.
Before the grant, the library offered a total of 40 children’s story hours and 12 summer reading programs. In 2017, Miss Grace, the children’s librarian, provided over 90 children’s events in which 1,475 children participated. These events included an after-school program, Saturday STEAM programs (science, technology, engineering, arts and math), as well as starting a 1000B4K (1000 Books Before Kindergarten) initiative, all in addition to the weekly preschool children’s programs.
Sandy Shaw, the library director, was able to form a teen advisory board to suggest programs and materials to be added to the library collection. She was also able to expand adult programming to include Wacky Wednesdays, which have included sessions on beginning quilting, triangle weaving, digital photography, education law for parents of special ed students, and more.
The statistics demonstrate the benefit to the community for this added position. The budget taxpayers will be voting on in May will include the funding to make the part-time children’s librarian position permanent.
The budget will also include funding to bring the staff salaries up to minimum wage. As always, the largest part of the library budget is staff salaries.
Trying to keep the budget reasonable, cuts were made in many areas.
The budget on which taxpayers will be voting will be $153,713, a little over a $7 average increase for the year per household.
There will be a “Town Hall” style meeting at the Community Free Library on Wednesday, May 9, from 6:30 to 8 p.m. to discuss the budget and answer any questions taxpayers may have. A movie and snacks will be available to children during this session.
If you have any questions, feel free to call Shaw at 638-6987, or contact Amanda O’Connell, board president at president@holleylibrary.org or Barb Kerns, board vice-president, at vicepresident@holleylibrary.org.
