Record-high number of people entered facility last year.

The Suttons Bay-Bingham District Library is still going strong – but not as strong as library officials believe it should be.

The library’s Board of Trustees will adopt a $138,506 spending plan for the library for fiscal 2008-09 despite a drop in penal fines and state aid – as well as the fact that voters have twice rejected millage proposals that would have increased local tax revenues supporting the library.

"We have definitely not gone into a funk because of our budget situation," said Library board chair John Krug, "but since the elections we have been forced to raise some fees and cut back hours substantially."

The library last year cut its hours of operation from 35 hours per week to 27.5 hours per week. Despite that cutback, some 26,400 patrons entered the library last year – more visits than ever – although library circulation and computer use was slightly lower than the year before.

"However, when reduced hours of approximately 23 percent average are accounted for, both (circulation and computer use) increased significantly," according to library director Virginia Roberts. In a year-end report she was preparing last week, Roberts’ adjusted figures indicated that circulation was up by 9.75 percent and computer use up by 16.34 percent.

"The biggest complaint we hear is that we are not open often enough or long enough," Roberts said. "But that’s the one thing we can’t do very much about."

Krug explained that the library has just one fulltime employee – Roberts – and several part-time assistant librarians in addition to volunteers.

"You just can’t run the library without two paid staff members on duty when it’s open," Krug explained. "And there’s nothing we’d like more than to restore hours," he added, "but unless we come up with about $30,000 more per year, we won’t be able to hire another fulltime staffer."

Roberts, who has a master’s degree, is paid for 32 hours of work per week at a little over $32,000 per year.

On some weeks, however, Roberts easily puts in twice as many hours for the same salary, Krug said.

Although state funding support for the local library has fallen substantially from last year, the amounts are not show-stoppers. State aid for fiscal 2007-08 was set at $4,756. For the upcoming fiscal year, it will drop to $2,887. Revenues from county penal fines went down from about $13,727 in fiscal year 2006-07 to a projected $12,354 in the coming fiscal year.

The good news is that most of the library’s funding comes from a 0.3-mill property tax collected by Suttons Bay and Bingham townships. Although the overall millage rate for townships is "rolled back" annually to account for increased property valuations under the Headlee Amendment to the state Constitution, funding for the library has increased annually from the steady 0.3-mill levy.

In fiscal 2007-08, the library budgeted for $44,912 in millage revenue from Bingham and $54,756 from Suttons Bay. In the coming fiscal year, those revenues are projected to increase to $48,807 from Bingham and $60,277 from Suttons Bay. Despite the roughly nine percent increase in funding from the millage, the cost of new materials – books, magazines, audiovisual materials, computers and software – is expected to increase about 20 percent, officials say.

"The only flexible part of our budget is collections," said Roberts, meaning materials that can be used or checked out by patrons. "But we’ve always tried to ensure that we improve our collections with the new items that people tell us they want."

Some $22,000 has been set aside in the budget for collections next year – an increase of about 10 percent over the current fiscal year.

The coming fiscal year’s budget will require that the library dip into its fund balance to the tune of about $3,000 in order to balance the budget, Krug explained. That will lower the balance to nearly $40,000 – about four percent more than the library’s target of maintaining 25 percent of its budget in reserve.

"We simply wouldn’t be able to maintain that fund balance without help from the Friends group and others," said Krug.

The Friends of the Suttons Bay-Bingham District Library in 2006-07 contributed $12,300.

The library’s fiscal year coincides with Bingham Township’s, running July 1 through June 30 of each year. Suttons Bay Township’s fiscal year runs April 1 through March 30 – prompting the Library Board to adopt a budget earlier than its fiscal year. The Library Board held a public budget hearing on Feb. 15 and will consider adopting the new budget at its next regular monthly meeting March 21 at 9:30 a.m. in the basement of the library.

The library is located at 416 Front Street in the Village of Suttons Bay. For more information about the library, phone 271-3512 or visit its website at suttonsbaylibrary.org online.