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Issue 16 would stave off Akron-Summit library cuts

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April 21, 2010

by Amanda Harnocz

Reporter

The Akron-Summit County Public Libraries are seeking a 1.4-mill replacement levy May 4, and if it doesn't pass, all 17 branches, including the Nordonia Hills Branch, could see significant reductions in services and about 200 people would lose their jobs.

That's according to Library Director David Jennings, who said without the passage of the levy, "everything we do will be drastically cut."

Issue 16, which would generate $12.7 million for the library, would cost the owner of a $100,000 home about $49 a year, according to the Summit County Fiscal Office.

The five-year levy would first be collected in 2011.

The replacement levy is the same millage that voters first approved in 2004. But because of changing property values, the county Fiscal Office estimates that homeowners would be paying about 21 cents more a month, or around $2.50 more a year, than what they are paying under the current levy.

"The amount the levy is expected to generate is half of the library's operating revenue," Jennings said. "The replacement levy is crucial to our community."

Without that $12.7 million, "hours of operation would be significantly reduced," Jennings said. "Which also means availability of computers, meeting spaces and program like preschool story hours or computer training."

Specifically, Jennings said, there would be "dramatically fewer books, CDs, and DVDs that would be purchased, and all of the programs and services we provide to the community would be curtailed, and some would be eliminated."

Also, the staff would be "approximately cut in half -- at least 200 people would lose their jobs," he said.

If the levy passes, all of the library branches would be able to maintain the services, programs, hours, items purchased and staff already in place, assuming there are no further reductions in funding from the state, he said.

"Without the support, the library will not resemble the organization that many in our community need and enjoy," Jennings said.

At the Tallmadge Branch Library at 90 Community Road, people visited the library more than 133,000 times in 2009, which means there were about 450 people stopping into the library daily last year.

More than 290,000 items were borrowed from the Tallmadge Branch in 2009, with more than 44,000 logins on library computers and more than 12,000 in attendance at library programs, said Jennings.

The library's Political Action Committee, Citizens for the Library's Future, asserts that they are "dedicated to its core mission in these challenging economic times of not only being a repository for advancing learning and literacy, but being a strong resource for information through the availability of vital tools," said the library's board president, Pete Kostoff.

There is no registered PAC against the library levy, according to the Summit County Board of Elections.

E-mail: aharnocz@recordpub.com

Phone: 330-686-3911




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