GUILDERLAND — On May 20, voters will decide on a $4.6 million budget for the Guilderland Public Library.

The $4,633,011 spending plan is about $85,000 higher than this year’s budget

The lion’s share of the budget is paid for by property taxes with just $34,450 coming from fees, grants, and donations.

The proposed levy increase is 2.41 percent, which is just under the state-set tax cap, meaning a simple majority will pass the budget. The library has never suffered a budget defeat. Last May, the current budget passed with 70 percent of the vote.

“We want to be good stewards of the taxpayer dollars and only ask for what we need,” the library’s director, Peter Petruski, told The Enterprise.

Petruski started as the library’s director last May, just after the budget vote, so this is his first Guilderland budget proposal.

“My goals were … that our library has got the full staffing to make sure we’re providing the best community service we can,” said Petruski. “So full desk coverage, full programing, full collection development.”

The library has recovered from the dip caused by the pandemic shutdown. “We’re still growing in terms of attendance in door count and circulation,” Petruski said, “but the growth has slowed down … it’s not as rapid as it was in the immediate post-pandemic years.”

All eight members of the library board present at their March 20 meeting voted in favor of the spending plan.

Petruski worked on the budget with the library board’s volunteer treasurer, George Wilhelm, whom Petruski called  “a tremendous asset.”

At their last meeting, the trustees discussed changing their bylaws so that Wilhelm could continue to serve past the stipulated term limit of three years.

Trustee Michael Hawrylchak said it would be “hard to find someone qualified and willing.”

The summary page of the budget concludes with a quotation from President Lyndon B. Johnson, which Wilhelm suggested, said Petruski, calling him “a history buff.”

“Books and ideas are the most effective weapons against intolerance and ignorance,” said Johnson. He spoke those words in 1964 as he was signing a bill amending the Library Services Act.

At their March 20 meeting, the trustees had supported a resolution, in the wake of current federal initiatives, to pledge unwavering dedication to the library’s mission as “a welcoming space for all” and to “bring people together through the power of information.”

“It’s really chilling to see what’s happening at the federal level and to see how people are talking about public libraries on the national level,” Petruski told The Enterprise as he discussed next year’s budget proposal. “Our role is to provide that information.”

He said of library patrons, “They’re either learning something or they’re getting verified information, not just what somebody says on a podcast or what somebody says in a press conference. We provide the information, and that is so important for an enlightened society to have all the information at their fingertips so that they can make informed decisions..”

Petruski said that providing accurate information would continue to be the Guilderland Public Library’s role going forward “in addition to being a place in the community for people to gather.”

He went on, “It’s so important, now more than ever, that people have the library so we don’t have to be separated. We don’t have to be divided. We can come together."

Expenditures

As is typical of libraries, the bulk of the budget — $3.5 million — is for staff salaries and benefits.

The library has between 60 and 65 employees, many of them part-time, said Petruski.

Those who are part of a collective bargaining unit will be getting raises of 2.5 percent next year, he said, while the management-confidential employees, who are not in a union, will get 3-percent raises, he said.

The costs for health care are not so predictable. “We are expecting the health insurance we provide to have another double-digit increase,” said Petruski.

The second largest cost category, for capital improvements, at about $120,000, is down substantially from this year. A recent capital project has upgraded much of the library’s systems as well as adding new space.

The library was built in 1992 and, said Petruski, “The skylight needs some tender love and care.” He added, “Skylights are an architectural challenge regardless of the building … and you can’t just hire any roofer.”

Still, Petruski is committed to preserving the skylight, which runs like a spine atop the original part of the building.

“When the light comes in, especially in the late afternoon and it’s shining in the library, that’s irreplaceable," he said. “So we want to maintain that.”

Since the library’s first-ever café closed abruptly last February, the space designated for that, which includes café equipment, has been unused.

“The board is still discussing what they would like to do with that space,” said Petruki when asked about it. “Right now, we’re using it as a book-donation sorting area.”

Petruski said he is also encouraging library staff to “think of pop-up ideas” for the space, concluding, “We do want to activate that space because it’s a beautiful room and it’s right in front of the library.”

Technology hardware and software has increased — from $88,500 to $100,000 — as has professional services and auditing, from $71,000 to $81,000.

Asked about the increase, Petruski said, “A big part of that is internal things like our payroll software and things that we use for either staff benefits or staff technology … In the past, we might have done [these functions] with additional employees. But by spending a little bit more on professional services, we can get the same result without adding money to the personnel budget.”

The cost for utilities has remained steady from year to year at $96,000.

The cost for collection supplies is also steady at $52,000.

The library is serving two different audiences with its materials purchases, Petruski said. “There are people who switched over to ebooks after the pandemic and have never gone back,” he said. “But there are — I see this every day — people coming in, checking out hard copies, walking our stacks.”

He went on, “The challenge … is the price difference — e-content is always so much more expensive than its physical equivalent.”

Part of the strategy for “getting people in the building,” said Petruski, “is we want people to come in and browse our new-book shelves and discover new things.”

He went on, “We want to make sure that there’s not just the hottest books that everyone wants to read or not just the books that have won an award, but to try different things and have people be like, ‘Oh, I’ve never heard of this book but it looks intriguing.’”

The only item besides capital improvements that has gone down in cost is printing and postage — from $6,400 this year to $4,700 next year.

Petruski speculated that part of that decrease may be, since the library no longer charges fines for overdue books, notices no longer have to be mailed out to delinquent borrowers.

Petruski said the fine-free approach “is going really well.” Libraries, he noted, may have charged fines for most of their existence “but they really are based on the honor system,” he said. “And most people read their books, borrow their DVDs,  and bring them back.”

Petruski, who spoke to The Enterprise on a Saturday, having come into the library to help with sorting donated books, concluded by saying how much he likes his job.

“What’s really gratifying,” he said, “is how much the community loves this library. “We haven’t done a book sale since January 2020 … When I proposed asking the community to bring donations, I was really worried that I was throwing a party and no one was going to come.

“We had almost 100 volunteers sign up to say, ‘I want to help you with this book sale’ … And then the number of donations themselves has … been overwhelming in a good way."

Petruski is working with the board and staff on the library’s next long-range plan, he said. “And there’s going to be an element of community engagement for the long-range plan.”

Elections

In addition to voting on the library budget on May 20, residents will also elect library trustees.

The library follows the Guilderland school district’s boundaries — which includes parts of Bethlehem, New Scotland, and Knox as well as most of the town of Guilderland — but is governed by its own elected board, which has the power to set policy and to levy taxes.

The library board originally had 11 trustees but downsized last year to nine. The posts carry three-year terms and are unpaid.

Four seats — currently held by Marcia Alazrak, Michael Hawrylchak, Norina Melita, and Michael Puspurs — are up for election.

The top two vote-getters will win full three-year terms while the next two will have shorter terms, filling out posts from which trustees resigned.

Candidates must be United States citizens 18 or older and have lived in the district for at least 30 days prior to the election.

Petitions signed by at least 43 district residents must be submitted to the school district clerk, Linda Livinsgston, by April 21.