Two or three branches? That’s the big question about this year’s Barrie Public Library budget.
And city council will decide how many library branches the 2021 budget supports by month’s end.
Barrie already has library branches in the downtown and in Painswick, near Yonge Street and Big Bay Point Road. The question is whether council will approve a Holly branch, which could be open in early summer.
“It’s expanding services into Holly that’s really the only thing notable, I would say, about our 2021 budget request,” said Lauren Jessop, Barrie Public Library’s chief executive officer. “We really hope that we can provide service to that area; they’ve been waiting a long time for this. I think our plan is flexible and reasonable.
“The space is largely ready for us. It’s totally doable," she added.
To be located in leased space in a commercial plaza in the Mapleton Avenue/Essa Road area, the new branch carries a $1.2-million capital cost, to be paid from development charges and fundraising, and operating costs of $723,877 annually. This would include $221,000 for salaries and benefits, down from $350,000. The savings would come from shared management at Holly and Painswick.
The remainder of the annual expenses would be for library materials, replenishing its collection, training, inter-branch courier service, custodial maintenance, electricity, water and insurance. The annual lease could also be covered by development charges, which are designed to recover the capital costs associated with residential and non-residential (commercial, industrial, institutional) growth.
Feedback from about 900 Holly residents who visit the city’s two library branches say they’re too far from their home or work and they would be more likely to visit a library if it was in a convenient spot, such as a community centre or a shopping plaza.
The Holly branch would be about 4,500 square feet. Jessop has described the branch as “boutique library space.”
Barrie Public Library’s downtown branch was built in 1996 and is 56,200 sq. ft., while the Painswick branch is 15,000 sq. ft. and was built in 2011. The library board itself has, in the past, spoken about the need for three more branches in Barrie - in community centres planned in the Hewitt's and Salem areas in the former Innisfil land, at 15,000 sq. ft. in size.
Holly aside, to maintain services this year the library board is asking for another $161,989 from the city, bringing its municipal request to almost $8.5 million, an increase of 1.95 per cent.
The library’s total 2021 budget is $9.7 million, which is offset by $1.2 million in revenues: transfer from reserves ($718,257), a local board contribution ($194,322), pay equity ($164, 307) and a provincial grant ($107,500). Salaries and benefits account for $5.8 million of the library budget.
“Our 2021 base (budget) increase is within the parameters we were given by council earlier in 2020,” Jessop said of the 1.95 per cent increase. “It’s unremarkable, our 2021 base.”
The library budget is part of the city’s operating and capital budget.
At this stage in Barrie’s budget process, which sets both taxes and service levels, homeowners face a 3.59 per cent property tax increase in 2021, or paying another $160 on a typical house assessed at $367,550, up from $4,454 in taxes last year.
Councillors will hear from their service partners — including Barrie police, the County of Simcoe and Barrie Public Library — on Jan. 11, 2021, deliberate property taxes and service levels on Jan. 18 and are scheduled to pass the budget Jan. 25.
