Michigan PL Slashes Staff, Closes Branches After Tax Defeats
-- Library Journal, 12/19/2006
The troubled Bay County Library, Bay City, MI, will close two out of five branches at the end of the year and full time staff will be cut in half. Total library service hours will go from 320 hours a week to just 73. These drastic measures follow the failure of two millage requests resulting in a 61 percent reduction in the operating budget, from $5.5 million to $2.2 million. Voters rejected a 1.2-mill tax renewal in November, after a similar defeat in August.
Interim library director Linda Heemstra told LJ that, besides the FTE cut from 50 to 25, all 45 part-timers, 35 pages, and 15 subs received layoff notices. The new main Alice & Jack Wirt Library, a $15 million, 62,000 square foot facility that opened in April, will reduce weekly service hours from 68 to 41. Two branches will be open only two days a week; one was just renovated and expanded at a cost of $4.5 million. The system has experienced some managerial turmoil in recent years, which may have affected voter confidence. Heemstra served as director for 29 years until she retired in 2004; she received an undisclosed severance package in return for not pursuing litigation against a library board trustee. She returned to serve as interim director until the end of December after Frederick Paffhausen was terminated in March 2006. He currently is suing the board for wrongful discharge. Heemstra was positive about the library, however, and suggested that when patrons recognize how much service will be affected they may be more open to approving another millage. The possibility exists for elections in May, August, or November 2007.
