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Library funding negotiations continue: Grant recipients
TRAVERSE CITY, Feb 09, 2010 (The Record-Eagle - McClatchy-Tribune Information Services via COMTEX) --
Negotiations continue between Grand Traverse County's district library system and three member libraries on new agreements that will allow the affiliates to maintain their local autonomy.
Talks involve the Traverse Area District Library and affiliated libraries in Interlochen, Fife Lake and Peninsula Township, participants on both sides said.
Updated contracts will set the amount of funding the main system contributes to the three sites and ensure they retain their own boards and directors -- long a hallmark of the individual libraries.
They differ from branches in Traverse City, Kingsley and East Bay Township in that the district directly manages the latter.
"We have always been an independent township library, and that is something that is very important," said Vicki Shurly, director of Peninsula Township's site, located at Old Mission Peninsula School since 1957.
The expired contracts took effect about a decade ago and are considered indefinite, meaning either side could decide to end it, said Greg Luyt, the district board's treasurer.
That happened in 2008, when his board told the affiliated libraries it wanted to change the funding formulas, Luyt said. All sides returned to the table last year.
The system is funding the members quarterly to sustain operations until contract talks end. Its overall budget is slightly more than $4 million.
Fife Lake last year received $103,543, Peninsula Township took in $164,892 and Interlochen accepted $165,255, district library Director Metta Lansdale said.
The affiliates say the extension allows them to keep the doors open until a new deal is reached, and Lansdale said it was a strategy to keep talks from stalling.
"We didn't want to make a single payment and then have negotiations go into hibernation until November of next year," she said. "Their expenses are going up. I know our expenses go up, and our revenues haven't gone up as much."
In Interlochen, where library service began in 1976, income from the county's library millage is nearly 74 percent of the overall budget, board President Donn Gresso said.
An equitable situation, Gresso said, would be to lock Interlochen's payments to the percentage increase or decrease the district library system experiences each year.
Even though operations haven't stopped, a deal is needed soon so affiliates can plan budgets, said Emily Clark, Fife Lake's director. Service started there in 1887.
Both Lansdale and Luyt said negotiations will continue.
Traverse Area District Library, Leelanau Township Library in Northport, Leland Township Library in Leland and the Suttons Bay-Bingham District Library in Suttons Bay are recipients of federal money to install public broadband access at each site.
The award, through Michigan State University, will be used to add a total of eight computers to the Leelanau County libraries and 15 to the Traverse Area District Library system, said Kurt DeMaagd, an assistant professor who is coordinating the effort.
Dollar amounts for each county have yet to be finalized and will depend on infrastructure needs, such as laptop carts or desktop lab space, DeMaagd said.
The project is funded by the 2009 federal stimulus package.
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