November 2008 Levy Q & A

  On Tuesday, November 4, 2008 residents of the Wayne County Public Library District were asked to vote on a 1.0 mill, five year, replacement operating levy.

  The Wayne County Public Library (WCPL) has branch libraries in Creston, Dalton, Doylestown, Rittman, Shreve and West Salem; two bookmobiles and a main library in Wooster. WCPL serves all of Wayne County except the Orrville school district (which is served by the Orrville Public Library).

1. Is this a new tax?
  No, for 15 years, the local library operating levy has helped support the Wayne County Public Library. Voters approved the five-year operating levy in November 1993 and approved another 5-year levy in May 1998 and November 2003. The ballot issue on November 4, 2008 is asking to approve the local library operating levy funding for another 5 years: from 2009 to 2013.
2. For what will the operating levy money be used?
  The operating levy provides funding to maintain library services, including the purchase of books, books-on-tape, books-on CD, DVDs; staffing for branches, bookmobiles and the main library; Internet access; reference services, story times and other programs.
3. What will this levy cost me?
  The levy is for one mill, so the owner of a $100,000 home will pay approximately $8 more per year.
4. What other operating funding does the Wayne County Public Library receive?
  The library receives a small amount, about 1 to 3 percent of its revenue from fines, fees and donations. About one third of the operating revenue each year comes from the local library operating levy. Approximately two thirds of the revenue comes from the State of Ohio’s Public Library Fund (PLF) that provides funding to all public libraries in Ohio.

  WCPL receives no operating revenue from any sales tax, income tax or any other tax revenue for operating expenses.
5. What has happened with state aid in the last 6 years?
  In 2002, state aid to public libraries began to decrease. In 2003, reductions in state aid led to reductions in the number of staff and the reduction of hours of service for all libraries in the WCPL system. From 2004 to date state aid has been reduced or frozen each year.
6. What is the mission of the Library?
  Public Libraries have three great missions today:

  First, provide books and other informational, cultural and recreational resources to the community;

  Second, provide and maintain appropriate technology to access the growing base of knowledge and data available;

  Third, and perhaps most important, introduce children in their earliest years to reading and learning. The Library needs to maintain and expand its programs for children and parents.

  Recent research in reading and learning has shown that reading skills begin in the first few months of life.
7. With new technology, why do we need a public library?
  Even with increased use of the Internet by the public, public library usage throughout the United States and in Wayne County continues to grow each year. Many patrons use Internet computers at the main library in Wooster or at branch libraries. The public library in Wayne County is an active, vibrant public service agency that is visited by thousands of people every day!
8. Times are tough for everyone. What has the library done to improve efficiency and improve services?
  WCPL has effectively managed its resources. The Library is efficient and cost-effective and has improved services each year, even when resources were scarce.

  The single best indicator of the usage of a public library is total direct circulation of all materials (books and other materials borrowed in a year).

  The following is the total circulation for all branches, bookmobiles and main library per year:

            2002             1,161,156
            2003             1,183,962
            2004             1,198,549
            2005             1,278,976
            2006             1,355,013
            2007             1,680,526

  The increase in usage from 2002 to 2007 is 519,370 books and other items – a 44.7 percent increase over 6 years.
9. Since the last levy in November 2003, how many new staff positions have been created?
  Wayne County Public Library received two major reductions in state aid for the 2003 budget year totaling a loss of $720,000. Staffing was reduced.

  Since 2003 WCPL has not added any new positions. When vacancies occurred, each position was evaluated and replacements were hired often with new duties and schedules.

WCPL’s staffing adjustments in 2003:

    a. 3 administrative positions eliminated
    b. 4 full-time and 4 part-time employees were laid off
    c. 2 vacant part-time positions eliminated
    d. Reduced the hours of 15 other employees

  Due to the reduction in staffing, the Library adjusted its hours of service at the main library and five branches and also reduced the number of bookmobile stops.
10. Does the Library have volunteers?
  WCPL has had an active group of volunteers for many years. Currently the library system has over 100 volunteers who help the regular staff provide service to the public.

  Each library in the WCPL system has a Friends of the Library (FOL) group that raises funds for special children’s programs and other projects. The Friends also volunteer to help with landscaping and children’s programming.
11. What if the levy fails?
  If the operating levy fails, then the current level of services and hours of operation could not be maintained. Bookmobile, branch and main library hours would be reduced by at least a third. The purchasing of new book and audio-visual materials would be cut significantly.

  If no operating levy is approved in November 2008, then WCPL will NOT receive approximately $1.5 million in 2009 that it had received in each of the last 15 years.

  In 2009, instead of a $5 million operating budget, only the $3.5 million would be available. The failure of the levy would have a much bigger negative impact on WCPL than the reductions of state aid in 2003.
12. Is the operating levy used to construct buildings?
  No, construction projects are paid for by capital funds not operating funds. Recent construction projects have been funded in several ways. The Shreve Branch Library renovation and expansion was completed in 2003 using funds from the Library’s Building and Repair Fund, which was saved during the 1990s when state aid was increasing.

  The Liberty Street Library in Wooster, which started construction in June 2006 (and completed June 2007) and the renovation of the old main library into an Operations Center, starting in January 2008 (and completed June 2008) were funded from three sources: a bond issue approved in May 2005, the Building & Repair Fund and donations made during a capital campaign.

  The Doylestown Branch Library construction project, scheduled for groundbreaking in October 2008 is fully budgeted by the Building and Repair Fund and the remaining funds from the May 2005 bond issue.

By state law, no operating levy funds are ever used for construction projects.
13. Why was the Main library in Wooster (on the corner of Larwill and Market Streets) renovated?
  The old library is a solid building with inadequate parking. Due to lack of adequate public service space, the administrative offices were moved to rented space over 10 years ago and the WCPL rented garage space for a bookmobile.

  In the last 10 years no one offered to buy the building.

  The old Library located at North Market and Larwill Streets was constructed in 1967. It is a solid building, but it has many deficiencies that simply cannot be remedied at that site. The building’s footprint covers the entire lot, literally leaving no room for lateral expansion, and the building was not designed for upward expansion. The parking lot is tiny (22 parking spaces) and across the street from the library. There is no land available for expansion on that site or for additional parking.

  The existing Larwill building was retained by the Library because:

    a. It will house the: Bookmobile Department, facilities maintenance staff, Information Technology (IT) staff, technical services personnel and administrative staff for the entire County Library system. Technical services include things such as receiving new books, categorizing and computerizing the collection, repairs and the like. Keeping these functions that do not interact with the public in a separate facility allowed the Liberty Street Library building to be smaller than it otherwise would have to be – thus reducing the overall cost of construction.

    b. The Library stopped paying (office space and bookmobile garage) rent of over $33,000 per year, effective June 2008.

    c. A portion of the lower level is being reserved for future creation of a records retention service in cooperation with public and private entities in Wayne County.

  By re-using the Larwill building as an Operations Center, the Library lowered construction costs and lowered future operating costs. WCPL also did not want to leave an abandoned, empty, eyesore in the community.
14. Why does the new library in Wooster (Liberty Street) not have a basement?
  There are several reasons that the new library does not have a basement:

    a. Books are very heavy and libraries need to have a floor load of 155 lbs per sq. ft. – to construct a library floor over a basement is much more expensive than building the main floor on a slab of concrete. Due to the type of soil at that location it was estimated that construction of a basement would have cost over $2 million.

    b. Basement space was not needed. The new library’s space needs were met by constructing a two-story building that can be relatively easily expanded (to the east and the west) in the future, if needed.