Residents approved the Great Neck Library’s $9,647,200 budget for the 2015-16 fiscal year on Tuesday by a vote of 715 to 251.
“I’m very delighted the budget passed and the public has confidence in the way the board has managed and continues to manage taxpayers’ money,” Great Neck Library Board of Trustees President Marietta DiCamillo DiCamillo said. DiCamilloi credited Great Neck Library Interim Director Chris Johnson and business manager Neil Zitofsky with creating a sound budget with good forecasting of the library’s needs.
She also said that the 74 percent of the voters who supported the budget reflected the public’s belief that the board’s approach to budgeting is sound.
“We do a lot of work,” DiCamillo said. “We know what our costs are.”
This budget calls for a $36,700 increase in spending over the 2014-15 budget with a tax levy that is the same last year — $9,375,000.
The library budgeted for $5,640,700 to be spent on employee salaries and benefits, $891,800 to be spent on library materials and programs and $350,900 on operations, which includes legal fees, postage and computer supplies.
Also included in the budget plan is a $315,000 reserve for construction, which will be used to handle payments for the Main Branch renovation project. The library will use the reserve to front construction costs, for which they will be reimbursed the following month from bond proceeds, Zitofsky has said.
The Main Branch, located at 159 Bayview Ave., will be closed for a year during an extensive renovation of the building. The improvements will be funded by a $10.4 million bond approved by voters in 2013.
The $315,000 reserve for construction will come from a $1,115,000 operating surplus the library has as a result of reduced staffing and utilities expenses because Main Branch is closed for renovations.
An additional $110,000 from the surplus is set to pay for possible repairs at the library’s other branches — Lakeville, Parkville and Station — which have received increased traffic as a result of Main Branch being closed.
The budget also calls for $250,000 to be taken from the surplus to buy new computers at all four library branches, Zitofsky has said.
Some $440,000 of the surplus will be spent on a new sprinkler system at Main Branch, he has said.
