Disclosure: Talkeetna Librarian Geri Denkewalter is an active KTNA volunteer.
After Tuesday’s borough budget deliberations, a number of Mat-Su libraries could be looking at an unexpected funding cut starting in July. That includes the Talkeetna Public Library, which would face a cut of more than $70,000.
Talkeetna Librarian Geri Denkewalter says after she submitted the library’s proposed budget earlier this year, she wasn’t given any reason to believe there would be an issue. That feeling continued through multiple public hearings on the budget in recent weeks, but took a sharp turn just a few hours before the Mat-Su Borough Assembly’s first meeting to deliberate the budget.
“It was kind of a shock to all of us that we all found out about it at 2:00 yesterday afternoon when the meeting was at 6:00. So we didn’t really get a chance to make any comments.”
After all public hearings, Denkewalter found out that Assembly Member Jesse Sumner was proposing cuts to library operations in Sutton, Trapper Creek, and Talkeetna. In Talkeetna’s case, that amounts to a little over $72,000. Assembly Member Sumner says the cuts wouldn’t affect library operations.
“I don’t believe that this is going to actually effect the operations of the libraries one bit. I’ve been here for a few years, and I’ve noticed that, whatever we budget, the actual expenditures will be lower. I’ve also notice that the fund balance of the non-areawide fund grows year after year….”
Geri Denkewalter says library operations would be impacted, though she says she hasn’t had time to determine the full impact.
“Basically, it’s going to be books, and programming, services for our kids and our elderly people and…adults.”
Denkewalter says some of that loss of service would result from needing to cut as many as three on-call library staff positions. Part of what that staff does is prepare for things like the Summer Reading program that recently resumed. That program also pairs with food distribution efforts to area children by the Upper Susitna Food Pantry. Without that staff, Denkewalter says running things like that gets more difficult.
“If there aren’t people here, our on-call staff, to do things like make grab and go bags…or just set up programs, make new bulletin boards, process books…If they’re not here, I don’t know how we’re going to actually provide those services.”
Perhaps the most noticeable change if staff positions are eliminated is the prospect of having to keep the library closed two days a week.
According to Denkewalter, a lot of the library’s costs are outside of her control. She says things like utilities, hourly wages, and insurance costs are not discretionary, limiting where she can make changes. She believes if the cuts pass, it could mean closing the library’s doors for two days a week. She adds that some planned new programs designed to get people together again after a year of relative isolation would also potentially be in trouble.
After the budget amendment was first proposed, Borough Community Development Director Eric Phillips said he also hadn’t had time to fully calculate what the operational impacts of the cuts to multiple libraries would mean.
“We really haven’t had a chance to evaluate what the operational impacts of this will be. I can say, of the fifteen budgets—operating budgets—that I have within Community Development, the library budgets are the skinniest, leanest budget.”
Assembly Member Tam Boeve, whose district includes both the Talkeetna and Trapper Creek libraries, says she is against the cut, and expressed concern about the timing of the amendment.
“I don’t appreciate an amendment like this coming forward after the budget hearings. I mean, this is absolutely something the communities are going to be impacted by and should have had an opportunity to comment on.”
A final vote on the library cut was delayed until the next budget deliberation meeting at 6:00 pm on Thursday.
