Port Library budget sees first decrease in years

Luke Torrance
Port Washington Public Library (Photo courtesy of PWPL).

The Port Washington Public Library unveiled its budget on Tuesday, a week before residents go to the polls to elect two library trustees.

The proposed 2019 budget would be about $7.47 million, down $47,000 or 0.62 percent from last year’s budget. The tax levy also decreased by 1.39 percent. It marks the first time in the past five years that the library’s budget had decreased from the year before.

There were no changes made to the budget since the last board of trustees meeting. The vote on the budget will be held on April 10, the same day as the trustee election.

Trustee Michael Krevor is seeking re-election, while three other candidates — Sima Vasa, Tania Danielson, and Stephanie Salzbank — will compete for his seat and the seat of Thomas Donoghue, who is not running again

“We firmly believe that this proposed budget will permit the library to keep up with new technologies and trends in library services and programming while maintaining the standard of excellence to which our community is accustomed,” Board of Trustees President John O’Connell wrote in the budget’s introduction.

In most parts of the budget, spending actually increased from the 2018 budget.

But salaries, terminal leave, and other employee benefits dropped by more than $100,000. The reason for this drop was the retirement of several staff members.

“A couple of our long-standing employees have retired and will be replaced by lower-salaried employees, said Nancy Curtin, the library’s director.

Debt service was eliminated for the 2019 budget, as the library had paid off an 18-year bond that was used to expand the building in 2000. The library had annually paid more than $500,000 in interest on that bond.

When asked about the “MakerSpace” area in the library, currently home to a 3D printer, Curtin said that the library had other projects to complete first.

“Some of the projects are running a little later than we expected,” she said. “We have a project to renovate the (English for Speakers of Other Languages) area but that is currently up at the state capital awaiting approval… we generally try to project the projects that will be completed in the fiscal year.”

O’Connell said that he expected to get some help for funding the library’s various projects and capital upgrades.

“We’ve been treated well by our legislators over the years like Jack Martins and Elaine Phillips and Delia DeRiggi-Whitton,” he said.

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