Niagara Falls PL Gets Budget

Judge rules that city must pay remaining balance of appropriation

By Norman Oder -- Library Journal, 10/1/2005

After months of wrangling, the Niagara Falls Public Library, NY, had to go to court to get the City of Niagara Falls to pay the balance of $2.1 million appropriated in the 2005 budget, which covers the calendar year. In an effort to save money—and with the hope that the library would win a referendum to become a school district library—city officials had transferred a little over $1 million to the library, which has two facilities.

In his ruling, state Supreme Court justice Vincent E. Doyle wrote, "To keep carrying throughout the budget sums that were requested but not allocated would not make sense," according to the Buffalo News.

After the library failed in its June referendum, the city refused to fund the facility fully, and the library closed its Local History Department and froze materials spending. The board also discussed closing the LaSalle branch.

After Doyle's decision, the library decided to reorder materials, opened the Local History Department, and chose to keep the LaSalle Branch open, with regular hours. Ed Perlman, attorney for the library, told LJ that the actual amount due the library was less than $600,000, given that the city waived $302,000 in rent typically charged the library and the city allotted the library $80,000 a month in August and September. Perlman noted that some of the money due was payments directly for benefits, so the library would likely net some $200,000 for salaries and materials.

Still, there are clearly bad feelings in Niagara Falls. A meeting on saving and repurposing the LaSalle branch ended with a shouting match between library board vice president Ken Hamilton and city comptroller Maria Brown, the Buffalo Newsreported. And it's not clear whether the city will be willing to fund the library at previous levels in 2006.