VOORHEESVILLE — For the third year in a row, the Voorheesville Public Library remains in the planning stage of a building expansion. The $880,880 budget proposed for next year does not incorporate any funding for major construction.

The 7-percent increase in the budget from this year is spread out over a couple of line items.

The building-repair fund, for example, is increasing from $4,000 to $6,300, which will pay for work on the cement walkway by the main entrance; a hole is now marked by hazard cones.

Insurance costs for the building have increased from $6,600 to $8,530 because the building is now legally owned by the public library rather than the school district, which used to insure the building. Voters approved last May allowing the school district to transfer ownership.

Building maintenance has increased by about $2,500, bringing that fund up to $26,000. Maintenance includes custodial work and snowplowing. Most of the increase is due to increased energy cost, library Director Gail Sacco said.

Employees salaries and benefits are increasing from $589,370 to $634,200 which accounts for a 3-percent annual increase across the board for every employee but also includes the expansion of the work force due to the increased services offered.

Taxes

Local property taxes will pay for $834,416 of the $880,880 total budget. State aid is $5,464, up about $1,000 from this year.

The estimated local tax-rate increase is 12 cents per $1,000 of assessed value. For residents living in New Scotland, the tax rate is estimated to be $1.66 per $1,000; Guilderland, $1.22; and in Berne $1.53. The public library service territory follows the same boundary lines as the school district.
The 7-percent budget increase is reasonable "with the needs we have," library board member Robert Parmenter told The Enterprise. It allows the library to keep up with purchasing new literature and also offer technology, he said.

A trend

The library will spend $60,000 on books in the upcoming year, about $2,000 less than last year, but material funding evens out because $2,000 more is budgeted for audio-visual materials, at a total expense of $13,600.
"There’s a trend I’m not happy with," Parmenter said, "People aren’t reading books as much as they used to." At the same time, though, more books are being sold than ever before, he said. Audio books are becoming a very popular alternative at the library, Parmenter said.

Significantly fewer books are being taken out, library board President Richard Ramsey also said, but there has been an increase in demand at Voorheesville for books on tape, music CD’s and movie DVD’s. They are particularly attractive to younger people, Ramsey said. CD’s take up less space on shelves than books do, in terms of over all building space. Also, Ramsey said the inter-library loan system through the Upper Hudson Library System is being used more.

The library is an invaluable resource to local students for research, Parmenter said.

Sacco said the library has a goal of reaching out more to both teens and senior citizens.

Sacco said she wants to work with the town of New Scotland senior-outreach program to reach those who don’t have the mobility to come into the library.

The Voorheesville library is already offering book delivery to elderly residents at no charge, but fewer than five people are using that service, Sacco said.

She wants to attend the senior-services meetings and go to senior events at the Wyman Osterhout Community Center to reach this aging population.

The ideas are to expand service to the elderly by getting more books out to them, and also by being a resource for them at the reference desk over the phone, Sacco said. She also envisions, e-mail training for seniors; more and more seniors are interested in learning how to communicate on computers with their families.

More programs

One half-time librarian is being promoted to full-time this fiscal year, Sacco said, to allow other librarians more time to develop the very popular programs. The library in 2005-06 offered 10 percent more programs than the year before and attendance to programs increased by 8 percent, Sacco said.

Librarian Suzanne Fisher this year arranged a field trip to the Saratoga battlefield accompanied by readings about the Revolutionary War, book-discussion groups, and instruction by a university professor. President Ramsey said that program filled up extremely fast, so the library wants to offer more. It also received rave reviews, Sacco said. The field-trip program was made possible through a grant from the Council for the Humanities, Sacco said.

Another grant the library received was to bring in music, Ramsey said. And another program was a writing workshop with an accomplished mystery author from Vermont. By getting more staff, the library creates more opportunity for time-intensive grant-writing, Ramsey and Sacco both stated.

Because of the new technology, Sacco said, she wants to add one new full support staff member as well. The libraries computer-inventory system is now more complicated and extensive and the new employee will keep continuity in the database, she said.

Building plans

An engineering firm has just completed and handed in to the library board a report assessing the building’s present condition, analyzing its structure and ranking pressing versus more long term concerns. In the 2005-06 budget, $24,500 was reserved for contractual expenses; $8,000 of that was used for planning the building project, to pay for this engineering analysis and for legal assistance in land acquisition.

Ramsey, told The Enterprise this week that negotiations for the purchase of the neighboring property have reached a "stalemate." The board has made a few offers, but they were rejected, he said.

It is not possible to build upward, based on the engineer’s review, Ramsey said. Also, building a second floor would require the library to shut down during the construction, something the board wouldn’t want to do.
In the upcoming year, Sacco said, she and the board want to get the space for the expansion "pinned down."

Another goal is to complete some designs so that the public can see what the building may look like, Sacco said.

This year, two forums on the expansion were held to gather community input — one forum was attended by residents and the other meeting was for all the staff, Sacco said. The agenda was to talk about what people would like to see in the facility, and what their service needs are.

Some repeating desires expressed were to create community spaces, where community meetings could be held, for more cozy places for reading for both adults and children, and for quiet, undisturbed research areas, Sacco reported.

Sacco applied to the State Archives for a local history repository, a secure room with a controlled environment, where patrons can review documents.

The grant, announced in June, would fund the cost for planning the repository.

The community likes the library’s small-town feel, Sacco said. With various housing developments proposed in the district, people emphasized that they would like the expanded library to still feel like a small-town center.

It’s important to maintain the support base that exists at the library, Sacco said. It’s a service to the community that the staff answer the telephones during the day, she said, rather than only being available or even open a few hours a day.

Repairs

While groundbreaking on an expansion still seems distant, the library board is going to have to start making some choices in the near future on costly repairs to the existing building.

The 18-year-old library building was built for under $1 million to limit cost at that time, Ramsey told The Enterprise this week. There are now some problems, he said.
The community thought the wonderful new building constructed in 1988 would last a long time, Parmenter said, continuing, "That long time is practically up."

The most urgent repair is replacing the gutters and rubber roof, Sacco said, referencing the engineer’s report. A roof replacement would cost $150,000 .

Ramsey said he has just received the engineer’s report and, at the next trustees’ meeting, the board members will review the document together.

A first glance, it looks like the engineers are recommending the repairs be made in two or three steps, Ramsey said. The rubber roofing is original, making it almost 20 years old, with a warranty that ran out after the first 10 years, Ramsey said, which is the first need.

Another problem with the building is that the heating and ventilation system put in at construction was middle-of-the-line, in terms of cost and technology then, he said. The side of the building facing the sun can be extremely warm with the other side very cold, he said.

While nothing has been decided yet, Ramsey said he anticipates a large cost such as roof replacement would either be voted on by the public in mid-year or incorporated into the 2007-08 budget.
The library budget has "always had good support from the community," Parmenter said.