VOORHEESVILLE — Library Trustee Bryan Richmond is seeking another five-year term on the five-member Voorheesville Public Library Board of Trustees. Former state archivist and Friends of the Library president Alan Kowlowitz is challenging Richmond for his seat, which is an unpaid position.
Also, the proposed library budget increased to $1.16 million, up $15,000 from last year, but the use of the library’s fund balance and an increase in desk receipts to offset the increase will keep total taxes collected $166 lower this year.

Voters will elect a trustee and decide on the library’s budget on May 17 from 2 to 9 p.m. at the Voorheesville Middle School foyer.

Bryan Richmond

Incumbent Bryan Richmond, who won his first seat in 2011 after a previous appointment to fill a vacancy, is running for another five-year term.

Richmond, 38, is an area attorney with experience working in libraries.

“Although I have worked for larger libraries, such as the State University at Albany library, and the Albany Law School’s Schaefer Library, none can capture the unique sense of community I have come to appreciate at the Voorheesville Library,” he said in 2008.

This week, Richmond told The Enterprise that the Voorheesville library has met the needs of the community by expanding programs and hours while keeping the budget down.

“We were able to hold the taxes flat,” he said. “There was a slight increase in the budget, itself, but this is the second year in a row of keeping taxes virtually flat.”

Richmond said that, as a younger member of the board with a family, he brings a different perspective; another member has no children at home, and a third has older children.

He said that the proposed increased budget pays for an expansion of hours the library is open, particularly summer Saturday and evening hours, “to get those people who work throughout the summer, just as in any time of year,” access to the library.

“Children and adult programming usage has gone up quite a bit,” Richmond said.

Voorheesville is one of only a few facilities that offer free space for outside use by groups like Scouts, he said.

He said that the library’s fund balance is healthy and set aside for repairs on the building.

Richmond is now the longest-serving member on the board, with eight years of experience, he said.

“I’ve got a good handle on the job,” he said. “I’m happy to continue to serve the community. We all have a role on the board.”

^{Alan S. Kowlowitz}

Alan S. Kowlowitz is the vice president of, and program chairman for, the New Scotland Historical Association, where he is a past president. He served on the Friends of the Library in Voorheesville in the 1990s and ran unsuccessfully for the library board in 2003.

Kowlowitz spends part of his time as a government fellow with the Center for Technology in Government, and part as a consultant with the New York State Technology Enterprise Corporation (NYSTEC) in information security.
He co-authored “Enabling Open Government for All: A
Road Map for Public Libraries, Center for Technology in Government,” a report on how open government influences and changes the role of public libraries.

Kowlowitz told The Enterprise that he would like to see the Voorheesville library maintain its programs, and the board expand from five members to seven, matching the school district’s board of education, which serves the same group of taxpayers.

“Seven board members allows the board to work through committees,” he said. The library’s bylaws allow a board of seven, but the current board of five would need to decide if it wants to expand, he said.

He also wants the Friends of the Library members to be invited to library board meetings as potential volunteers.

“They do great work, and should be brought into the process,” Kowlowitz said. “Many hands make light work.”

Kowlowitz wants to maintain as many programs as possible for kids, seniors, and teens, including online language instruction that is free through the library, and offerings of e-books, he said.

The library board should be “enhancing programs based on input from the public and public usage,” he said.

About the budget, Kowlowitz said, “I would prefer a program budget, showing what resources are supporting programs,” rather than a line-item budget.

Kowlowitz has been a Voorheesville resident for 26 years; he and his wife, Susan Abram, raised their daughters, Caitlin and Jenica Abram, in the village.

Budget

“We are increasing the number of programs and opportunities for lifelong learning at the library, and trying to be more responsive to our community and what they would like to see us do,” said Library Director Gail Alter Sacco.

The proposed library budget increased to $1.16 million, up $15,000 from last year.

“The budget is more. It won’t cost the taxpayers more,” said Alter Sacco. At the end of the budget year audit in July, unspent money was placed in a fund balance, she said.

“It’s just like your savings account. We put that aside for a couple reasons,” Alter Sacco said.

Funds are used to pay library bills from July until taxes come in, in September, she said. The library also keeps the fund for emergencies, like unplanned repairs, she said.

Library use last year showed a demand for the building to be open, Alter Sacco said.

“We’re watching library use this year to be sure the community is using the library,” she said. This summer, the library will be open a full day on Saturdays, and offer Sunday hours except in July and August.

Salaries are the largest expense, at $646,000, up nearly $11,000. Books are the next largest expense, at $74,000, down $500.

Another expense in the budget is “contractual,” at $50,500, which covers the costs of the audit, payroll service, the archivist, a story teller, and information technology support, Alter Sacco said.

Last year, the board hired Nancy Meyers Preston, Ltd., a Latham consultant who offers strategic planning for not-for-profits, to guide the board in deciding “what the library should be doing in services for the next three years,” Alter Sacco said then.
The board set five strategic goals to evaluate library administration; collaborative community partnership; programs and services; governance and leadership; and marketing.

The board pursued the evaluation after two new members said they heard mixed responses from the community about what people want from the library, she said last year.

The goals this year are “not fundamentally changed, but we have been taking steps to meet them,” she said.
The library hosted its first Voorheesville Round Table recently, and another is scheduled for Sunday, May 15, from 3 to 4:30 p.m., Alter Sacco said.

“It’s an opportunity for people in the community — those in non-profits or government — to talk about what they’re doing,” she said. She described the gathering as a way to network to meet community aspirations.

“They don’t have a defined agenda,” she said. “One of the aspirations is to have more opportunities for generations to come together.

“Let’s share what we’re doing,” she said, “and talk about how people are impacted around us.”